Hopscotch Highlight: Celestial Shore

Celestial Shore (Brooklyn, N.Y.) will perform on
Friday, Sept. 5 and Saturday, Sept. 6 at
Hopscotch Music Festival

You never really realize how stupidly excited for Hopscotch you are until you're only a week away. Thoughts of sore feet, slightly sunburnt necks and sweaty springs between venues become something to look forward to as you frenetically plan out how you'll possibly make it all the way from CAM to Kings and everywhere in between. After perusing the lineup more times than one could ever care to count, it seems like the schedule is finally set in stone (with some obvious room to pop in and out of shows based on the crowd reactions). While it's absurdly exciting to be seeing St. Vincent, Spoon and Mastodon in the middle of our downtown city streets, some of the best parts of the festival is usually from the young upstarts that perform at the gorgeous Fletcher Opera Hall. Last year San Fermin served as one of the absolute highlights of the festival, it reminded me of how beautiful it is when venues and bands perfectly sync. Fletcher is a versatile venue that feels just as comfortable for orchestral baroque pop as it does for spastic, dreamy psych rock like Celestial Shore.

Celestial Shore have been barreling through any expectations of an upstart group of 20-somethings, churning out two full-length albums in a little over a year while earning opening slots with folks like Deerhoof, Ava Luna and Freeman on Friday at Hopscotch. Celestial Shore feels instantly familiar whilst simultaneously being entirely fresh. It's like if The Beach Boys took a dose of bad acid and listened to too much Flaming Lips. There's enough enchanting melodies to keep listeners honed in on the airy vocals while their rhythms and time signatures flip to-and-fro to keep listeners on their toes as well. I spoke with Sam Owens (coincidentally from my hometown of New Bern) about the origins of the band and the blog-buzz they've recently received.

1) When and how did Celestial Shore get started?

We explored the ins and outs of our early 20s together…through music and misadventures. discovered our miscreant tendencies, dropped our responsibilities and found stability in the idea of playing loud music for extended periods of time. we lived in a few different cities, and ended up in the indie swamps of Brooklyn.

2) Did the earliest songs you worked on sound like your current musical output? If not how do you think your sound has evolved throughout the duration of the band?

I'm not sure. To me they sound different. To you they may all be variations on a theme. I feel the quality has improved.

3) When you're writing songs is there an equal musical voice throughout the band regardless of instrument, or does everyone generally stick to their own parts and pieces?

Greg and I switch off singing lead and harmony. max plays drums. We all write things.

4) You got picked up by Hometapes for your first full-length and immediately started to receive a lot of national attention? Did that place any internal pressure on the band or was this the goal from the get-go?

We've always wanted to enjoy some level of success in music. We haven't gotten there yet.

5) Along with that national attention naturally comes the constant reaction from the blog-o-sphere? Do you stay up to date with who's writing what? Do their pieces/reviews have any effect on the way you view or approach your music?

We all pay attention in our own way. we're definitely not above it. it feels good when someone sings your praises, and it feels bad when they pan you. Its impossible not to react. The climate is confusing but amid frustrations I appreciate the opportunity to reach people through the internet.

6) You've had a pretty quick turnover when it comes to album releases, you've already got your second full-length set for release this October? Do you see yourself keeping up with this pace or are you just in a creative spike right now?

I'd like to keep up the pace. It would be fun to challenge the idea of the current album cycle, but I realize its not a marathon. We'll see how it goes.

7) How do you think Enter Ghost sonically and thematically compares to 10x?

Enter Ghost is more realistic. The energy and sounds are more obvious, less oblivious. If 10x was a game of cat and mouse in some dark alley,  Enter Ghost is a psychedelic romp around the east village.

8) You've got a very spastic, yet somehow fluid sound. If you had to choose three bands to describe your sound to a new listener, who would you choose?

During Enter Ghost, I was listening to T.Rex, The Breeders, and Big Star.

Celestial Shore performs at Fletcher Opera Hall at 10:30 pm on Friday, Sept. 5. They'll also be performing at the Trekky/Hometapes Day Party at The Pour House at 1:15 pm on Saturday, Sept. 6.

Hopscotch Recommendations: Freeman, Ava Luna, Krill, Palehound, Landlady and Prince Rama

Hopscotch Highlight: Wild Fur

When I first had contact with Wylie Hunter, the local songwriter behind the Americana group Wylie Hunter & The Cazadores, I was immediately hooked. Hunter's got a serious knack for catchy hooks and booming choruses, regardless of whether he's singing in jest of tattoo'd girls or with an earnest hint of sadness over lost loves, he's doing it with passion. That's probably what got me so excited when news of Wild Fur came around. Hunter and fellow local powerhouse Nick Jaeger teamed up last year to create the inexplicably awesome duo of Wild Fur. Combining both artist's songwriting prowess, they immediately began to push genre boundaries between pop, Americana and electronic with their numerous singles (one of which was premiered here on The Bottom String). When Hopscotch's lineup dropped and I saw Wild Fur, I immediately knew I'd have to check them out at some point throughout the weekend. After getting a sneak peek of their live set-up at a recent Local Band Local Beer, it was clear that they'd be one of the weekend's highlights for this busy festival. I recently spoke with Wild Fur about the origins of the band, why they chose to release singles initially as opposed to an EP, and their Hopscotch excitements.

1. What brought the two of you together musically? I know Nick has been involved in a slew of local projects both as a musician and producer, but what specifically sparked the decision to start a project such as Wild Fur?

Wild Fur was started as a way for both of us to do something different with no preconceived notions of what we were trying to sound like. Had these been recorded or released under the monikers of “the Cazadores” or “The Tomahawks” they would be perceived as sounding a certain way because of association with those bands. We were both in a place where we wanted to explore new territories and and not be bound by what had come before.

2. Did you have a musical direction in mind when you started the band or was this just how it came out?

The idea from the beginning has been to avoid genre and follow the muse of each individual song.

3. How do you break up the songwriting responsibilities?

In short, we're still discovering the process. In the beginning we each had songs or song ideas that we had been working on individually. We worked through those ideas together and kept what we liked. Anything we disliked was reworked or rewritten entirely. Every part of an arrangement is discussed, not just lyrics or melody. It's an interesting approach, having someone give you their candid opinion about a song makes you push into ideas you never would have considered. 

4. How did you go about switching the tracks from studio set-ups to a live show?

We decided to start with a four piece band for the simple fact that it makes touring easier. We decided to both play keys and guitars in the live setting. We did a lot of talking about what parts were important to include in a live show and tried to adapt those to work for the setup we have. We basically asked ourselves, “what are the hooks?” and tried to make those translate to a live show.

5. You've been slowly releasing singles throughout the duration of the band, what's the reasoning behind that? Do you feel that the slow trickle of musical releases as opposed to an EP or album out the gate helps to build the trajectory of your band?

Releasing singles was an attempt to get people to actually listen to each song. There’s so much music released now, when releasing an EP or LP there’s always the potential for someone to start listening but then switch their attention to the latest viral sensation.

6. Speaking of trajectories, when do you see Wild Fur releasing a full-length or EP?

The 4 singles have been packaged and released as an EP and a split 7” with Joshua Carpenter was released in June. We’re currently working on finishing up a full length. We’ll release it once we have the means to do so.

7. What do you feel each of you bring musically to the table?

We each bring our own individual definition of what a hook is. The common ground between those two places is where the songs of Wild Fur are found.  

8. What are some of the major influences in the songwriting process for Wild Fur?

Inspiration for these songs comes from attempting to move away from the well-trod paths of songwriters before us. We’ve listened to a lot of music and have a lot of influences but, we both reached a point where emulating our influences was not filling the creative void.   

Wild Fur performs at The Lincoln Theatre on Thursday, Sept. 4 at 8:30 pm 

Lineup Recommendations: Saint Rich, How To Dress Well, St. Vincent, White Laces, Phosphorescent, Sun Club, Free Clinic, See Gulls and Dark Rooms

Hopscotch Highlight: Landlady

It's crazy to think that we're under a month away from Hopscotch, the multi-day music marathon that annuals takes over downtown Raleigh. Now into its fifth year as a festival, the event has grown to unimaginable expanses, combining a wide breadth of genres to create a surprisingly cohesive lineup with unparalleled character. For the past few years I've been providing weekly run-downs of the artists I'm most looking forward to from the festival, combining local and nationally touring acts to give a nice snapshot of some of the most anticipated sets of the weekend. When I first saw Landlady on the Hopscotch lineup I didn't bat an eye, but as I went through my annual lineup run through I was immediately entranced. "Dying Day" was the first song I heard from this New York based outfit and it's a song that's as upbeat and rambunctious as it is somber and morose, Adam Schatz brilliantly tackles the topic of mortality with a sleek aural approach.

I recently reviewed Landlady's album for Paste Magazine, and in case you've yet to check out the write-up I'm basically in love with it. So I took that as an opportunity to dig into the mind of Adam Schatz, the mastermind behind Landlady. Schatz is a member of Man Man among a slew of other acts that range from loosely constructed improvisational jazz to funky Afropop and more. I e-mailed a few questions over to Adam (as my recorder conveniently decided to "shit the bed" the same day as our interview) about his musical beginnings and life as a musician with your hands in umpteen thousand pots.

1. When did you first get seriously involved with music and what was your first project like sonically?
Adam Schatz: In 8th grade me and a few of my best friends talked about starting a band. It seemed like the appropriate next step for us, living in the suburbs. We had two guitars, bass and me on piano, and met our first drummer the next year. We went through a number of names and settled on the name One Eyed Stanley after our guitarist's one eyed basset hound. The band lasted throughout high school and we took the year after high school off before college to keep playing in the band and not just following the school path without any break. The music had a pop core always but also had a difference to them. Even from that early of an age I had a real interest in using dynamics and arrangements as a way to shape songs, rather than pick influences and try to imitate other songs. It helps that I had a basic understanding of music theory and knew my way around the piano, so subconsciously things were at work when I sat down and tried to write a song, tried to see what came out when my hands messed around and I let my voice go.


2. How have your musical tastes evolved over the years and how has that been displayed throughout your music.
Adam Schatz: My tastes evolve every day, and I try to maintain an openness. There are always the albums and songs you liked when you were younger that are embarrassing now, but for the most part I just like to pile it on.

When I was a sophomore in the high school concert band one of the older saxophonists passed me a DVD. It was Slow Century, the story of Pavement, and he told me to listen to the song Summer Babe. Around that same time I was listening to the Pixies and the Flaming Lips and all sorts of goodness that had been around but was just then landing on my head. They all dealt with personal weirdness in an open way, never afraid to get aggressive or beautiful. From then on I've always embraced thinking of music in human terms, what it does to you and what you can convey with it, rather than approaching the making or listening of it with too much technique at the forefront. Technique is essential and technique is the best when it's subconscious. When the people making it are the heart of the music.

So with every lesson I've taken or every new person I've met who's turned me onto something new I've tried to keep stretching my ears. I'm often very late to the bandwagon on any artist. Charlie Haden just passed away and the attention brought upon him and his music from so many people I know egged me into digging in and there's this live album with him, Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell in Montreal that's just magical to listen to. Nina Simone was a recent personal discovery. It makes you feel like a big idiot to wait so long, but also so satisfied to get to experience something new and great even now. It's essential to never think you've heard it all or know everything that you like.

In 8th grade I was super into the Three Six Mafia.


3. How did Landlady come together? Where does it fit in time-wise with the starting of the rest of your myriad of musical projects.
I've always done a lot of things because I have a lot of ideas, and rather than pour everything I've got into just one project that may or may not catch with people and possibly burn that out in the process, I've planted a bunch of seeds and tried to work with as many great folks as I can.

But that's not to say that right now Landlady isn't the biggest focus. I'm writing this from the back of my minivan cruising through Montana. This is happiness for me and it's what I'm doing all of the time right now. (Not to say many other things aren't being cooked up).

I started the band in 2010, I had taken a break from writing "real songs" to do a project with my buddy Jeff Curtin called Previously On Lost where we wrote about television and made a lotta folks happy along the way. But I was ready to try personal songwriting again and wanted a crack team of expert musicians and singers who could make it the best it could possibly be. I wrote the songs with these friends in mind, and that became the first album Keeping To Yourself. Since then the lineup's evolved a bit and grown to where there's an extended family of Landlady musicians who could be on a show. But the new record, Upright Behavior, is the core band as it stands now, a 5 piece. We hammered out a bunch of live takes in a studio in Woodstock in April of last year, and did overdubs in our homes in Brooklyn. Not long after that I met the folks who run the Hometapes record label and we really hit it off. I sent them everything I'd ever recorded and even rough mixes of the new album. I believed in what they were doing and it turned out they were quick to believe in us as well. I'd been waiting and working to find people to support this music for years and years and it ended up being a right time right place situation. I'm terribly okay with how long it took, though don't ask me 2 years ago how I was feeling.


4. How did you get together with Man Man and how has being a part of the band shaped your musical output?
Adam Schatz: All of these answers start with a childhood story, which is okay, and maybe good. In 2006 my friend Kevin took me to see Man Man at PA's Lounge in Somerville. They were just starting to get attention and I was just starting to not feel out of place standing in a rock show around people a lot cooler and older than me. Without exes on their hands.

I could barely see the band in the dark room and the music was unbelievable. The energy destroyed me and the songs were great and I became an instant fan, seeing them at least six times after that when I moved to New York for school. As I went on with my life, a mutual friend of the drummer knew that I was a fan and doing a lot of improvised music, so he introduced us knowing that Chris (Man Man drummer) was also into making spontaneous stuff. We emailed a bit, and not long after that a few of the guys had left Man Man and I played a show with Those Darlins in Philly where Ryan (Man Man singer) saw me play and asked what I was up to. I joined the band not long after that and recorded on the newest album On Oni Pond almost immediately.

Musically, seeing that show happen at age 18 did pleasantly irrevocable damage. The creative drumming and tweaked song structures piled onto a sea of driving new music that was already spreading in my head fueled by the likes of Deerhoof, Wilco and Grizzly Bear. It all helped and that plus all of the jazz and other sounds that steamrolled me when I got to New York has certainly affected the music I make. But I'd say those musical influences are maybe 30% of what affects the music I write. You gotta account for all the other experiences you have being a person walking around on earth. I think there's a misconception about how people write songs or how bands make it happen, where they decide what the influences are and write in those styles. Maybe some people do do it that way. We do not.


5. When writing songs for Landlady do you take hold and orchestrate the entire piece or do individual members compose their own parts?
Adam Schatz: It's different for every song. Sometimes I have a complete vision. Other times I have just the smallest ideas and know I can trust the band for us to make it a finished piece. Sometimes I'll record a demo that has lots of improvisations on it and band members will transcribe those improvised melodies and those become the parts. That's how "Dying Day" was made. It was a piano improvisation that came out very quickly, then took me hours and hours to transcribe it and we rehearsed the hell out of that song to get it to sound as good as it does now.



6. What do you feel are the overarching themes of Upright Behavior? It feels like a very cathartic record, was it difficult to write or did it come together easily?
Adam Schatz: It came together over time, some of these songs are 4 years old, so I never sat down to "write a record." But because of that approach + the big picture themes of many of these songs (life, death, growth, plants, food) it seems to be outlooks from my brain, what I think other brains see, what I think my heart and other hearts feel. There's a lot of humor in the album, because there's a lot of humor in me and in the band. It's something I value so so much. When you analyze all the parts, it just becomes an honest portrayal, and probably how I'll keep trying to write until it stops working.


7. So do you try to tailor these older musical ideas to a newer sound or did these song snippets just not fit in for previous projects/releases?
Adam Schatz: There really is no talking of a "newer" sound. It's amazing when everyone gets along and is incredible at their instruments, we can just go for it. Sometimes we set different musical rules for different songs, based around unisons or textures or anything. But it really is a case by case basis. The recording and mixing process of the album gives it an overall connective sonic tissue, but that stuff isn't thought about in the writing or even arranging process necessarily. Maybe that will change for the next album.


8. Being in such a diverse array of acts, do you feel like Landlady is a project that has all of these separate influences/sounds funneled through it or is it separate of your other work?
Adam Schatz: This is the most whole presentation of myself. Combined with the people I like the most playing music with me. I think it's the most sincere, honest and creative thing I've been able to do so far. Where any of the projects go or grow from here is anyone's guess.


9. Did you set out with a particular sound in mind for Landlady or was this just the music that felt right for your creative output?
 Adam Schatz: It's the music that came out when I was 23. 24. 25. 26. It's all time-dependent more than "sound" dependent. I wrote many of the songs for the first album on Casios and my Farfisa organ which gave a different result than when I started with piano, but at this point each song comes from a new place. I really just wanted to be able to do anything. Landlady is not a band that does everything at once. But we could do anything. We'll surprise you. It's a guarantee. That energy, that attitude, is so awesome. It feels so good.

Landlady performs at Tir Na Nog on Thursday, Sept. 4 at 12:00 am and at the Trekky Records/Hometapes "Friend Island" Day Party at The Pour House on Saturday, Sept. 6 at 3:25 pm.

Lineup Recommendations: De La Soul, Reigning Sound, and Ed Scrader's Music Beat

Hopscotch Highlight: Jamaican Queens

Jamaican Queens perform on Saturday, Sept. 6
at The Hive at Busy Bee

It's hard to believe that there's under a week left until Hopscotch, but alas we're inching closer and closer. It's been difficult to quell my excitement for the festival, but now that we're six days away I can begin to truly geek out over how fantastic next weekend is going to be. Although the lineup has undergone a slew of changes, it's still as strong as before with some devastatingly awesome lineup additions happening at the last minute. While the past two Hopscotch Highlights have focused on local artists, this last one will shine the light upon an act from Detroit that's been on my radar for quite some time now.

Jamaican Queens are another group (much like Sylvan Esso) that's been crafting fantastic pop tunes with a strong electronic footing. Many critics have penned the trio as a "trap-pop" group due to their southern hip-hop influence in their production styles, but tossing labels aside it's clear that this band is fixated on deviating from the norm and producing an incomparable sound. With influences ranging from pop stars like Drake to dancehall to punk, Jamaican Queens serve as an amalgamation of various styles that comes out as banging pop gems.

Songwriter Ryan Spencer describes the group's sound as "abrasive pop," citing their bleak Detroit surroundings as an influence for their somber and twisted lyrical content. "Living in a really bleak city like Detroit makes it easy to dwell in depression," Spencer claims. "But that’s kind of my best way to write songs, by being like cripplingly depressed." But despite calling a bankrupt city home, Spencer and the rest of Jamaican Queens embrace their surroundings, as it allows them to do what they do best, craft these infectious pop tunes that are tinged with dark undertones.

Hopscotch Highlight: Morning Brigade

Morning Brigade will perform at Deep South The Bar
on Friday, Sept. 6 at 12:00 am

Last week's piece on Sylvan Esso marked the first Hopscotch Highlight for this year's festival, it focused attention on a band that's still in its infancy but has covered an astounding amount of ground in the year that they've been together. This week's spotlight shines on a band in quite the similar situation. Morning Brigade is a bright young act based out of Chapel Hill that has blossomed from humble beginnings into a full blown sextet that straddles the fine line between simplistic structure and grandiose embellishments.

The band is comprised mostly of UNC students, ranging from a freshly graduated keyboardist to a handful of upperclassmen from various backgrounds. However, one would never know that this band has only been together for a few years, they're a passionate crew of musicians that have achieved a cohesiveness that takes years for many folks to craft.

Songwriter and vocalist Peter Vance constructs literary folk tunes that produce vivid images of the worlds inside of and around us. There's an equal amount of focus on internal struggles as there is on the beauty of nature and the hope for change. Tracks like "Rough Patch" equate eternal hardships with a patch of pesky weeds and a broken heart with a neglected garden. Vance's songwriting has an intrinsic quality about it that makes it easy to relate to, it's all filled with clearly personal moments but they've been shrouded with enough mystery for listeners to create their own interpretations. Just the way Vance intended. The songs are straightforward, driven by acoustic instrumentation and rooted in earthy undertones.