MUSIC REVIEW: Relations EP by the band known as Relations on 100M Records is synth-punk duo from New York City. The guitars on this are fiercely savage in the way Wire or Wedding Present drive you with subtle use of feedback. They got good tone. The bass peddles you around the bases of this EP with somewhat of Joy Division factory influence here which we think you should check out being there is a drum machine employed as part of the backing band. This EP is over before it begins and we’re already looking forward to more. Don’t know a lot other than to wonder why so much black and white art bands? Why??
We’re big Lightouts fans here on the RS music entertainment blog. We like bands who do good covers and here is yet another one by these guys on their latest called The Big Picture single. This is one of many collections they’ve put out in the past year. Consistent quality always catches our ears. They know 80’s and 90’s alternative rock without the hairspray or use of corny keyboards.
Sounds like this: The Baby Screams MP3 by The Cure from Head on the Door Swan Lake MP3 by Public Image Ltd Second Edition Totally Wired MP3 by The Fall from the Rough Trade Anthology
Drive is a sonically sound road trip rock documentary with David Gedge and his band The Wedding Present touring North America way back in 2005 which was Directed & Edited by Steve Stone and his company Third Hand Films whom I’ve known the better part of 20 years! Can’t believe it. Anyway, the story goes that Steve sent Gedger an email when he heard they were planning on coming to America and he asked him if he’d be interested in taping some of the shows. After a bunch of red tape, venues collecting taping fees, many emails and miles of editing here’s the end result; a road show which uses video shot at multiple venues in the states and some by the band themselves.
Some of the interviews takes places at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA but unfortunately the concert footage there could not show any of the cool shit there. Other venues include Maxwells to the Roxy in LA. Steve took a few minutes out of his Sunday and came over to play Wii with my daughter and I to drop off a copy of the film. Here’s a few questions I shot over to him after the home screening. [BUY IT ON MVD]
The Wedding Present - Photo by Terri Nelles
RS: You’ve done a lot of videos over the years since I’ve known you for Pegboy and Buffalo Tom. How’d you come to pick David Gedge as documentary subject matter?
SS: I saw that The Wedding Present were about to tour the U.S. after an 8-year hiatus, so I thought that would be an interesting project. I sent my pitch to David Gedge and he said yes. RS: What’s your best memory shooting this road show and being on the road with the Wedding Present?
SS: my best memory was probably having dinner at Maxwell’s in Hoboken before that gig with Peter Mark Craig (a TWP fan from London who I had met 2 nights before in Boston) and my second camera guy, Matt McNamara. It was a real bonding moment. RS: David Gedge is pretty English and from what you told me he wore the same outfit every night. That must had helped with consistency a little?
SS: actually I think (and hope) that he had a few of the same shirts, but it did help with the mix and match editing from the different shows RS: When was the first time you saw twp? Where? Memories?
SS: I first saw TWP at CBGB’s in 1994. my only memory was that everyone was yelling for them to play “kennedy” and they wouldn’t do it. RS: For the uniniciated can you describe their sound?
SS: their sound is very fast, jangly guitars with what i can only describe as very british vocals.
Photo by Terri Nelles
RS: Was it much different than shooting porn stars? I know one of the projects Women in Porn you’ve had on the back burner is still in process. Has that ever going to come-out? Or is there just a flood of that stuff?
SS: Obviously the content was different, but the biggest difference is that when you’re shooting a live concert, you can’t stop if there’s a problem, so you have to be better prepared technically. I hope to eventually finish the porn project, just have been busy with life.
RS: Was it easy to shoot this on next to nothing of a Dixie cup budget? Ever think of having a kickstarter account to fund something?
SS: Budget-wise, all I needed was tape stock and a couple of tanks of gas. The biggest expense was airfare to Los Angeles and a couple of nights in hotel rooms in Boston, D.C. and LA.
RS: What has the WP fan base response been like so far?
SS: One thing I learned from this project is that TWP fans are quite loyal and the overall response from them has been really positive. The film was premiered in London in June of ’10 and the feedback I got from that was really great. But I think the best compliment I’ve gotten from more than a few people was that they felt compelled to clap after each song in the film. That they felt like they were watching a live show.
RS: Seems like everybody and their mother is making documentaries. For instance the One about City Gardens and Randy Now. Would you do something like this again? What would you do differently?
SS: There are definitely a lot of docs coming out about everything under the sun, but that’s just because it’s so easy to do cost-wise and technology-wise these days. I love music and would welcome the opportunity to work on another band film, but as far as doing it differently, the only change I’d make would be shooting in HD.
RS: Any concert or other documentaries of recent you admire?
SS: I really enjoyed the Curt Flood doc on HBO.
RS: What’s in store for Third Hand Films? I know part of the big plan is to move out to LA. Sounds terrorizing to me but how can people reach you?
SS: I don’t know what is in store for Thirdhand Films. If things go according to plan, yes, a move to the west coast in possible. As for reaching me, only if someone has money to throw at me, steve@thirdhandfilms.com
RS: What are your top 10 songs as of recent? Any new bands? I know you’ve also DJ’d any other career you’d choose?
SS: This is the toughest question. I’m so out of the loop with new bands. I really love the alternate version of “Loving Cup” on the Exile on Main Street outtakes. Cant’ say there’s too much that rattling my brain right now. As for another career, I wanna be a dog whisperer. RS: You once dj’d on prb and where else I can’t remember exactly? What are some of the songs you would put in a playlist with twp? Does not have to be current tunes.
SS: i did shows at wrsu, wtsr and wprb, all at different times between ’92 and ’98. songs that I would play with TWP? not so much particular songs but some bands would be new order, my dad is dead, the cure. RS: Anything else you’d like to add? Words of wisdom for people in film school,etc.
SS: Nothing else to add and my only advise to film school students is have a back-up plan because everyone and his brother is making “films” now.
Roadshow play list: Kennedy MP3 By The Wedding Present from Bizarro (1989) Ceremony MP3 by New Order from Substance French Film Blurred MP3 by Wire from Chairs Missing Seven years MP3 by My Dad Is Dead from The Taller You Are The Shorter You Get (1989) A Night Like This MP3 by The Cure from Head on the Door (1985)
I’m not sure how Joe Strummer would feel about “free” world revenge but him being killed 8 years later is an acitivity we must question. Was justice really served? Was this our only option? Shouldn’t we have just taken him prisoner? Is the cost of his martyrdom something we’re willing to pay? Sure, the cost of lives and cold hard cash are one of the things that have been hitting us through industrial complex and then there is the loss of feeling secure by our boarders.
Total mind changer.
For the record we normally like to keep this blog poli-agnostic. But here’s a selection of some of the tweets from the last 24hrs capturing this event which may envigorate the beehive in ways we have yet to understand. From an extremists point of view Osama Bin Laden is/was their JFK. Crazy like Hitler but none the less a scary figure like Kadafi. Filmmaker Michael Moore was on fire!
Here’s what the twittersphere has been saying: @MMFlint Cost of war to the U.S. since 2001: 1.2 trillion dollars. Interrupting Celebrity Apprentice: Priceless. (via Mike Olpin)
@MMFlint via Michael Moore
FOX News: Elderly Man on Dialysis Killed by Young African-American Male
@MMFlint CNN reports Osama buried at sea. Am I the only one that smells something funky?
@TheRodcast: PLEASE GOD LET IT BE A GAY SOLDIER WHO KILLED BIN LADEN
@GhostOsama via Osama Bin Laden
Well this sucks…I accidentally enabled location on my tweet
@andersoncooper Anderson Cooper
Does anyone else find it moving hearing people singing our national anthem outside the white house gates? I do.
@williammullin Bush just choked on a pretzel. #binladendead
@JennyJohnsonHi5 by Jenny Johnson
Obama says the US sent a clear message to the Taliban following bin Laden’s death, that message was a text which read “WTF! ROFLMAO! xo USA”
@UncleRUSH Russell Simmons
I’m not saying I’m not glad we got Bin Laden I’m saying the loud celebration outside my apt (world trade) hurt my spirit.
@kevinhoskins
Osama jokes and Jack Bauer tweets are SO last night, people.
“When you blame yourself, you learn from it. If you blame someone else, you don’t learn nothing, cause hey, it’s not your fault, it’s his fault, over there.” -Joe Strummer
What? How did this happen all of a sudden? Sort of rellavation that two very different musical trail blazers turned 50 this year along with many other singing alternative icons. Daniel Johnston’s Birthday was in January and Henry Rollins’s was 02.13.61 to be exact. I know this because it says it on the spine of the Black Flag tour diary he wrote called Get In The Van||||. Fast forward and the Rollins Band is playing a show at The Fastlane II in Asbury Park and he mentions he just turned 30 and you could not trust him anymore. I can’t believe that was 20 motherfucking years ago! Daniel Johnston’s child like lyrics always were and will be trust worthy but Hank was trying to tell me something. Then Rollins released a song called “Liar” pre-shotgun in mouth right as everyone including were cashing in or checking out as the case may be. So I laughed so hard when I first saw the video in a AIM Marketing meeting. He was dressed up like a cop and I thought this has to be a joke. He hates cops but the other young phone retailers had never been exposed to him before and the company owners in particular didn’t understand this outburst. This was serious business marking the punk. We had to help sell this record into stores across North America and we did. That job didn’t last long mostly because I used to gather my info and then chat with folks on the companies dime about other cool music to help pass the time. Oh well. Ancient history but I guess the point is this was the moment when i knew alternative music was over as I knew it.
I’m not sure I buy the whole 50 is the new 40, and 40 is the new 30 because how do you explain those random gray hairs by my balls? The goods news is that these gateway artists are still looking from right side of the grass but who’s going to cary the torch now?
Boys Don’t Cry MP3 by The Cure – Robert James Smith. Born, 21 April 1959 It’s Over MP3 by Daniel Johnston from Hi, How Are You? [BUY] Happy Death Men MP3 by Echo & The Bunnymen from Crocodiles – Ian Stephen McCulloch, born 5 May 1959 [BUY] Gun In My Mouth Blues MP3 by Rollins Band from Lifetime [DO IT] I Will Dare MP3 by The Replacements from Let it Be – Paul Westerberg born December 31, 1959 [I HATE YOUR MTV} Catapult MP3 by R.E.M. from Murmur John Michael Stipe, born January 4, 1960 [CHRONIC TOWN] Master-dik MP3 by Ciccone Youth Thurston Joseph Moore born July 25, 1958
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