Make a Plan to Love Me

In honor of Shameless Self Promotion Day here at AOoN, we wanted to remind you of some of the great interviews we have brought you over the last few months, like:

Indie rock freak-funkers, Le Loup

Apocalyptic noise-makers, The Farewell Republic

DC stalwart and soon-to-be household name, Deleted Scenes

U2's, Bono (Er... maybe some day)

Also, don't miss one of our favorite monthly features State of Rock, whereby we take a look at one of our nation's great states and tell you the top ten musicians or bands who call it home. So far we've covered Washington, DC, Maryland and Kansas. Maybe your state will be next!

Under The Influence

Last month we told you about many of the great and not so great bands influenced by Joy Division. This month we are looking at the Beach Boys, who have arguably inspired the very best bands making music today. If you're under the impression that the Beach Boys was just a poppy, corny surf-rock band, you're in serious need of upgrading your outlook (that's what Wikipedia is for). All I'll say is that while half of the Beach Boys were busy hanging out with Charles Manson, Brian Wilson was sitting around, doing acid, unleashing his schizophrenia and dreaming up the album, Pet Sounds, which is probably one of the top 5 most important albums ever made. Here are the bands that they have left in their wake, no pun intended.

Broken Social Scene
Listen to a song like "7/4 (Shoreline)" from about the 3 minute mark on and then check out the Beach Boys doing just about anything on Pet Sounds. Notice the similar 'walls of sound' that are so indecipherable you can't tell what instrument is making what noise, not to mention all the horns.




Animal Collective
It's hard not to think that had the Beach Boys came into existence 40 years later they would've sounded exactly like this. Animal Collective has found the noises in the nether regions of Brian Wilson's brain and recorded them for us to enjoy.




Grizzly Bear
If "California Girls" had actually been about artsy Williamsburgh boys wandering around the foggy coasts of some wind-blown beach town in Maine, it probably would've sounded like this.



Fleet Foxes
This is the sound of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young getting together with the Beach Boys and building a snowman.



The Besnard Lakes
Ever wonder what would happen if Brian Wilson had a love-child with Queen's Freddy Mercury? No, probably not. But now that I've planted the seed, here's the answer:




Dios (Malos)
These Californians come off like broken-hearted Beach Boys who've just eaten an entire pan of pot brownies (because they probably have).



Mates of State
The Lawrence, Kansas' sugary-sweet husband and wife duo can leave you with a candy high or toothache depending on the song, but at their best, the harmonies are inspired and inspired by you know who.




Olivia Tremor Control
This Elephant 6 Collective band is the best psychedelic surf-rock band from Athens, Georgia. It's like a Brian Wilson acid trip gone horribly awry and awesome.




Panda Bear
The solo effort from this Animal Collective member is a contemporary version of Brian Wilson's Smile. Like a mantra, Noah Lennox repeats over and over, "Try to remember to always have a good time," yet something ominous haunts the outer ambient edges of these songs.




Le Loup
A little Brian Eno, a little Brian Wilson, a dash of banjo and whole lotta harmonies.

Le Loup Live at the Black Cat

At one point last night, Le Loup's lead singer, Sam Simkoff, leaned into his microphone and said that it was nice to be back home. The crowd packed inside of Washington D.C's Black Cat couldn't have been happier to have them back. After being on the road for the last month in support of their newest album, Family, Le Loup took the stage to an audience composed of friends, family members and fans alike.

For anyone who has only heard Le Loup on album, the live experience can be quite shocking. Though experimental to be sure, most of the songs on Family rely on space, harmonies, and African inspired rhythms. On stage however, they get freaky and wild in ways that the studio versions only hint at. While Robby Sahm's drums are often the driving force behind the songs, a few times throughout the course of the evening the remaining members gathered in a circle to perform what might be the only enjoyable 'drum circle' I have ever seen. Another surprising revelation (aside from the guitarists truly awe inspiring whiteguy afro) was simply getting to see how truly talented these guys are. Each member in Le Loup work their ass off to make sure that you're shaking yours. And dancing wasn't a problem. The deep Beach Boys meet Bob Marley-on-steroids grooves were infectious enough to move even the most stone-cold hipster. But the best moves were those of Simkoff, who has the greatest white boy shuffle on stage this side of Thom Yorke.

At one moment during last night's performance as Sahm pulverized his drum kit and Simkoff tweaked knobs that made abstract noises rain down on the crowd, while the rest of the band shredded guitars in shadow of the aforementioned afro, I paused to ponder the amazing fact that this all started in a basement in Bethesda, Maryland. As I came back to my senses I looked up to see the band looking completely caught up the pulse of their own groove. That pulse couldn't have sounded healthier. Le Loup fiercly defend the DC scene at every opportunity and one only has to look to Le Loup to see that the DC music scene is alive and well.

Le Loup Interview

Ask Le Loup what they think of the Washington D.C. music scene and they'll tell you it's one of the best in the country. But the fact is, their gorgeous, cheerful, often experimental music is helping to put that scene back on the map. After touring the country in support of their newest album, Family, the band is back in DC for a homecoming show at the Black Cat tonight. I had a chance to catch up with drummer Robby Sahm who, like any self-respecting Washingtonian, takes pride in his organizational skills.

There's clearly a lot going on with Family in terms of all the layers and harmonies. How long did it take to record the album and what was the experience in the studio like for you guys?

The time it took us to get everything recorded was around 6 months. We met on weekends for about 5 months in my parents basement in Bethesda, Maryland on weekends, then molded and tweaked the tracks for a week in Baltimore. The last two weeks or so were recorded in (guitarist) Jim Thomson's family cabin in the Smoky Mountain region of North Carolina. We then mixed down each song to a manageable number of tracks and took them to J. Robbins' Magpie Cage studio in Baltimore. He worked wonders on our somewhat amateur recording and helped us in a huge way to make the songs sound like they did in our heads.

We wanted to engineer and produce the album ourselves, but none of us are experts in either of those departments, so we decided to keep it simple. We used 2 Rhode NT 1 mics to record the entire album. Limiting ourselves to a stereo (2 tracks at once) tracking system allowed us a very nimble and simple engineering process with mics often placed strategically around the rooms we recorded in to get the specific ambiance of the particular space. The streamlining of our technical setup allowed us to be very nimble and simple when capturing fleeting ideas and moments.

You guys have just returned home from touring the country. How do you gear up for something like that and is touring something you enjoy doing?

We all sort of scattered across the country after the album was recorded, so we had barely played the new songs as a band. We decided to meet for two weeks in a central location, my parents house, where we could rehearse all day. Luckily it was enough time, and we were really excited to take it to the stage.

Since then the tour has been smooth sailing. It didn't include as many extreme highs or lows compared to past tours, but I think that's mostly because we all wanted to maintain our sanity and health as much as possible. We planned the whole thing much more carefully and were all around more prepared. As boring as it sounds, our record keeping and overall organization is something I'm proud of this time around. This all between the insane hedonism of the rock n roll lifestyle, of course (wink).

As mentioned earlier, there's a lot of complexity in Le Loup's music. How do you pull that off live?

Some of the sampled layers from the album, like water sounds and huge percussion sections, we simply put into one of two samplers we run on stage, synced all together with a metronome in my ear. The tough part is making sure everything works out naturally onstage and doesn't come off as a band playing while slapping samples on top of the whole show. The idea is to have that stuff almost be a new member of the stage show with a character that's all their own. We've also found that some electro sounding parts just sound way better if a robot plays them. Some of the electronic drums we use as samples could be triggered note by note by us, but the lack of human feel is what ends up giving them more character in the end.

Finally, you guys are often considered part of both the Baltimore and DC music scene. Obviously Baltimore is getting more props these days but how does the DC music scene stack up? Is it hard to get by as a musician in a city where art will always take a back seat to politics or do you find it supportive?

As far as scenes go, it really was in the warmth of the D. C. scene that we incubated in. It's become apparent how kind and cooperative the D. C. Music scene is compared to a lot of other places. We've heard plenty of horror stories of backstabbing, trash-talking and unproductive competition from other bands from other cities that really helped us appreciate all the help and advice we received during our initial stages. Now that we've gained a tiny bit if national attention we try to carry that mentality with us around the country.

Sam lived in Baltimore for 2 years and Christian for a year, but I would hesitate to claim that we're actually part of the Baltimore scene out of respect for the awesomeness that is the Baltimore music scene. We've only actually played Baltimore once, and it was very cool, but D. C. is the place that it all went down. I recently read an article about the Brightest Young Things (a popular DC music and entertainment website) where Jason Bond Pratt said "This city is built on ideas. There's no port, no factories. Everyone comes here to chase their ideas. There's no reason people shouldn't look here for leadership in fashion and art.". I like to believe this captures spirit of the D. C. Scene that allowed us to bloom with our conceptual, strange and somewhat experimental take on pop rock.