TFT: Where did the name of your band come from?

Nils: Our friend Cody gave us the start of it. The name is a play on words. The basal ganglia is the part of the brain stem which controls emotions or feelings. For us, it doesn’t really mean anything it just sounds kinda weird and we jumped on it. We hadn’t had a band name for a while and decided to fix it with something fun.

Adam: And we’re just The Gang.

TFT: You’ve got two tracks called “Sean the Paul” and “Ellen the Generous”. Was there a theme in the name of the song titles?

Adam: Well, honestly, the song titles are more often than not inside jokes for us. We just kinda make things up as we go, parts and songs and stick it all together. That’s the hardest part of the music that we make, the transitions. We have a lot of parts that we make up quickly and then have to work out transitions.

TFT: Was Oliver a great help in that regard in the studio?

Amir: We can be very sloppy (laughs). Unfortunately, we don’t get to practice as much as we like. We tracked together live so any help we can get is great. At the end of the day even if we got a part wrong if he can make it sound like we got it right that’s the most important thing when you’re making a record. Oliver really helped us in that regard.

Nils: He also gave us a space where we felt like we could experiment and we ended up adding a lot of breakdowns as we tracked.

TFT: That’s definitely something I noticed about your half of Mingling. The tracks are deceptively heavy. What are some of the heavier bands that have influenced you?

All: Doppelganger and the self titled record by The Fall of Troy. Adam: We like The Number 12. Amir: Between the Buried and Me. Adam: Mastodon. Nils: We’re working on a new track that sounds a lot like Mastodon. Adam: We like Daughters and Tera Melos for the weird shit but we’re into hip-hop and rap too, Iron and Wine and Death Cab.

TFT: What are the band’s plans for the future?

Adam: Well we’ve been working so hard on Mingling. Now that it’s done, we plan to go local and get the word out. Play a lot around the city. We’re gonna stick with Mama Coco’s going forward. We’d love to go on tour next summer around the Tri-State, maybe hit Pennsylvania and Upstate New York.

Amir: You can definitely catch us on the 29th at Goodbye Blue Monday and at upcoming Mama Coco’s Showcases.

TFT: Why should people care about Basal Gang?

Nils: Because we care about you! Adam: Come to our houses and say hi! Amir: We’ll make you pasta.

—

Following No Shoes has been a rollicking adventure. From crashing my car driving drummer Emilio Herce to their first show to the moment the police shut down their set last Saturday, the band has been a constant source of insanity and excitement in my life. Their half of Mingling is driven by a pulse of piano-like guitar tapping by George Ramirez. “Honeycomb Mirrors” is a lovely showcase of this technique with sharp jazzy interludes. Then a cry of pain opens the “swirling vortex of darkness” that Oliver Ignatius mentioned and we’re left wondering how such a nice group of boys summoned something so evil. “Raindrops” features a tongue twisting intro and is a joyous ode to falling in love and indie rock. No Shoe’s love of The Mars Volta then shows through in a creepy crawly outro riff. “Werewolf Fight Club” is an explosive set-opener live but could stand some more bite on record; a minor gripe. Closer “Honduras Thompson” begins with a Millenial call to battle before going through a worse emotional breakdown than my last ex. Throughout the tracks, the band retains an impeccable sense of groove and songwriting. My conversation with Emilio, George Ramirez (Guitar/Vocals), Fabian Kaupert (Guitar/Vocals), and Dan Kunkel (Bass/Vocals) continues below:

TFT: Guys, what made you pick these 4 songs to record the split with?

George: We have way too many songs that we need to get out and these fit best. “Honduras Thompson” is the oldest of the batch.

TFT: So “Werewolf Fight Club” is one of the weirdest hardcore songs I’ve ever heard where did that come from?

Dan: The name came from inside joke that we had one night after leaving our practice room. But the song just came from the inspiration to write a really strange hardcore song in 30 seconds. We wanted to challenge ourselves to write this short song quickly that fit us.

TFT: Your band is one of the most exciting live acts I’ve seen. So much of your set is unpredictable. So when a song’s structure seems to change so much from set to set, how do you know when a song is done?

Fabian: Well, George, Dan, and Emilio always insist on playing things differently, especially George I’m trying to get things to be same and that’s a point of conflict for us actually but at the same time the songs express that conflict which is cool.

George: We’re a very young band, we’ve only been at this for a little over a year. We’ve got 13 songs more or less done that we’re proud of, why shouldn’t we perform them for the people? The fact that everything changes all the time is to keep me interested. Experimenting is something I love and it makes for a much better show even if we end up wrecking the whole set list. (laughs)

TFT: So you guys say you have 13 songs finished. But only 7 of those are recorded. Can we expect more recordings soon?

George: Were still working through them all. I’d really like to do a single.

TFT: This one is for Emilio. Your band mates tend to make these crazy songs and that are all over the place. How do you keep everything together as a drummer and make sure things are still danceable or moshable?

Emilio: Well I wouldn’t say they’re that crazy. The songs have weird parts in it but in my mind we always maintain a sense of pop. My main thing in the band is to keep these beats that are danceable; that’s why i play drums. This type of music you write in parts and then put it together so I’ve had to step outside 4/4 or work with different feels but it’s not too bad.

TFT: Why should people care about No Shoes? George: Who suggested that people should care about No Shoes?

The post Mingling with Basal Gang and No Shoes appeared first on The Faster Times.

Mingling by No Shoes and Basal Gang is a great snapshot of where the hipster punk scene in New York is going. Both bands showcase talented musicians, artistic daring, and a penchant for goofy song titles. Making sense of this mess and others is Oliver Ignatius, the head producer and engineer at Mama Coco’s Funky Kitchen. Over the last 2 years, Oliver has rapidly built a confederacy of passionate and honest bands around his studio. Affable and unpretentious, he’d be the life of the party even if he didn’t throw most of them. I caught up with Oliver at the Mama Coco’s showcase at Muchmore’s last Saturday to discuss cockatoos, recording Mingling, and how his neighbors drive him nuts.

TFT: How did you get your start recording people?

Oliver: In my own experiences with studios I always came away with something that either didn’t sound right or wasn’t perfect. I’d been recording for my own projects since 8 years ago. I started recording other people about 2 years ago in my bedroom. I wanted to create a safe haven for bands; somewhere they could come and trust that they would get the record they intended. I progressively moved from my bedroom to the basement and this January I set up an LLC and a permanent space for the studio.

TFT: So who is the Mama Coco of Mama Coco’s Funky Kitchen?

Oliver: She’s a cockatoo I own, or I should say she owns me (laughs). Cockatoos are very intelligent and Coco has a great personality, she’s very beautiful, musical and talkative.In fact, when I started out I couldn’t move her cage out of my room so you’ld hear her screeching away on all the drum tracks.

TFT: That was your secret ingredient?

Oliver: No, it sounded like shit (laughs). I love her though and she’s this great erratic figurehead. I’m glad because I don’t want this collective to be all about me.

TFT: If Mama Coco’s Funky Kitchen had a signature dish what would it be?

Oliver: Our signature style is how we get to know bands. I try to get a feel for who the bands are, what they like, and who they like and understand what they’re trying to express.I think that when a record is a manifestation of these individuals and not just a regurgitation of influences that’s beautiful;. So much of music now is in a box; we’re trying to kick out of it trying to kick out of it. We wanna make every kind of music as long as its good.

TFT: Can you speak to some of the challenges you’ve encountered in building this studio?

Oliver: (Laughs) We’ve had nothing but challenges but surmounting them on no budget is what makes life exciting. We charge our artists a pittance because making the art is the most important thing. My goal is to make the studio sustainable. I just wonder what might happen with some investor more muscle andword of mouth? How might it pay back the community and break bands out? I just want Mama Coco’s to not go away. Oh, there’s also a karate school above us which can really get on my nerves.

TFT: What was your experience making Mingling like and the two bands involved in it?

Oliver: Basal Gang and No Shoes; two very interesting bands. I see them and Iced Ink as operating in a similar sort of continuum. All these groups could be over simplified and called math rock. They’ve got a lot that transcends that label however. No Shoes bring these elements of classic psychedelia, folk and pop. But they also can become more than the sum of their parts. We tried to capture how live they can just get so big and scary and build, I don’t know, a swirling vortex of darkness.

TFT: Definitely, that unpredictable side is something I really love in them. And Basal Gang?

Oliver: They’re a bit of a different thing. Basal Gang can take a dip into do-wop, they bring in falsetto, or a 6/8 time. They’ve got these elements of RnB and Metal that set them apart too. But the breakdowns have this pastoral beauty, the hard edges remind me of harsh 90s rock ala Slint or Pavement. I didn’t know where that came from because they’re such mellow unassuming guys when they’re not playing.They have such a bond when they play; it made live tracking sound fantastic. I have to say that both bands remind me of Syd Barrett era Pink floyd which is some of my favorite music ever.

TFT: The two bands have great senses of humor, did you have any funny stories from the studio?

Oliver: Well with these guys it’s always mildly absurd but it all kinda blends together for me. Basal Gang all work at the same coffee shop so it was tough to find time where they could all get off and come in. We had our fair share of technical difficulties too. Ironically enough the finished product came out great.. When the bands came in, they were very serious and worked hard.

TFT: Why should people care about Mama Coco’s?

Oliver: I can’t tell anyone what to care about. We’re trying to do something we care about. The more into it the band is the better the finished product is. We don’t believe in exclusion. We started with 5 bands, we’re now at 25. I don’t believe any walls can hold us back; I just want to make fantastic records and have the time of our lives.

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Sometimes, the champ loses his form. A hint of rust here, a blown punch there, and soon a young contender has taken his belt. The title of prog heavyweight champions had been stripped from Coheed and Cambria after their disappointing 2010 release, The Year of the Black Rainbow. That record which saw the group experimenting with fuzzed out textures more akin to Nine Inch Nails lacked a certain cohesion and immediacy. When bassist Michael Todd was fired by the band for famously attempting to rob a pharmacy for opiates, fans may have began if Coheed and Cambria could stand another round.

Their new single, “Domino the Destitute”, should come then, as a huge relief. The song and accompanying video are a true return to form. Music, lyrics, and images blend to tell the story of a prize fighter who breaks bad and the dire consequences. Coheed and Cambria’s ability to craft memorable hooks and winding progressive guitar lines are on full display. “Domino” is the melodramatic prog they made their reputation on infused with their past album’s dirtier production style. The band seems reinvigorated and the return of their old drummer, Josh Eppard, brings a stomping groove to this raucous track. Fans will eagerly await Coheed and Cambria’s return to the ring in The Afterman: Ascension on October, 9th. The first half of a double album, its conclusion The Afterman: Decension will be released sometime in February 2013.

Click here to order The Afterman: Ascension.

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Hot Columbian black metal: Greater evil, shorter sleeves.

It’s been over a year since Immortal, Norway’s frostbitten pioneers of epic black metal, released their reunion album, All Shall Fall, and you know what? It still kinda sucks.

I was as pumped as anyone when I heard Abbath was reuniting the grim trio for a series of live dates in 2006 and nearly had a stroke when they announced the recording of new material. The metal legions had good reason to be optimistic: First there was the majesty of their 2002 swansong, Sons of Northern Darkness, the album with which they gracefully expired to the sound of their long ship sinking beneath the timeless ice flows. Then there was Abbath’s deadly experimentations with his post-Immortal outfit, I.

But All Shall Fall failed to produce for me the same level ecstasy and mountain top elation, as did Sons and At the Heart of Winter. Why? Because a lot of All Shall Fall sounded like shitty versions of old songs. There is no reason to listen to “Unearthly Kingdom” or “Norden on Fire” when you have, respectively, “”Beyond the North Waves” and “At the Heart of Winter.” I’m just glad I didn’t shell out for the special edition digi-pack, complete with a (useless/illogical) double-sided poster and the, ahem, “Special black Immortal plastic bag.” It’s hard to argue that you’re not just cashing in on black metal’s popularity when your new album does absolutely nothing to advance or develop your sound. What unfinished business was there in Blashyrk? Clogged gutter?

If All Shall Fall broke your heart like it did mine, then I have someone you need to meet. Inquisition hail from Columbia, and on their latest blackened opus, Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm (whew!), they’ve cemented my belief that along with Hacavitz and The Chasm, we’re going to be hearing a lot more awesome metal from below the border in years to come.

The first thing that struck me on Ominous Doctrines… was the vocals. Mastermind Dagon’s impression of Abbath’s (Immortal) unearthly croakdom is dead on. Likewise his seemingly endless supply of riffs achieve that same balance of blasting brutality and ringing cold melody that made At the Heart of Winter so epic. Inquisition are also adept at those heaving, glacial breakdowns (the good kind) reminiscent of Immortal classics like “Solarfall.” Yeah, you can cry foul all you want, but their dedication to the sound is sincere (they’ve been kicking around since ’88) and while Immortal have been stuck in first gear since their resurrection, Inquisition aren’t afraid to push the sound into passages of cosmic dementia like on “Desolate Funeral Chant.” Until Immortal get their shit together, I’ll be turning to Inquisition for my fix of frosty epic blackness and dramatic metal poses.

The post Finally, an album to make up for that shitty Immortal reunion appeared first on The Faster Times.

So, for all you metal missionaries out there, I give you these tools of conversion. They’ve worked for me in the past and I hope they serve you just as well in your quest to spread the metal faith:

Nightwish- “Nemo”

Operatic vocals, epic orchestral arrangements, that piano line, Finland’s symphonic heavy metal heroes have been a staple of my conversion kit for some time. The song tends to play particularly well with the opposite gender, fans of the female singer-songwriter bit and my Tina Turner fanatic of a father.

Mercyful Fate- “Gypsy”

For your classic rock loving associates, Denmark’s Mercyful Fate are a great reminder that metal was not always so different from good old rock n’ roll. “Gypsy,” from their 1984 magnum opus Don’t Break The Oath has an almost disco-inspired bounce that fans of any guitar-driven music find hard to resist.

The Lord Weird Slough Feg- “Hiberno-Latin Invasion”

This ditty is a great introduction to the beauty of the the twin-guitar harmony, a staple of metal since Iron Maiden, but without the hammering drums or gruff vocals. The Lord Weird have never been a conventional metal band, fusing Celtic folk, classic doom and sometimes even thrash. They tend to throw the uninitiated for a loop in a good way. Their cover of the Horslips classic “Dearg Doom” isn’t a bad place to start either.

Crescent Shield- “The Passing”

The cheese factor alone might make this superb exercise in classic metal a stretch, but the combination of passionate vocals and mid-paced, highly muscular riffing has played well with fans of musical theater and D&D alike.

Nightwish- “Amaranth”

I know it’s not fair to include this band twice but since this song inspired me to write this guide in the first place, I thought it should be worthy of inclusion. “Amaranth” has a little more modern flavor to it, but the opening string swells and irresistible chorus have had me blasting this in my room all day.

Agalloch- “Not Unlike The Waves”

Sure there’s a few screams on this one, but they’re spaced out, buried under distortion and not quite so in-your-face. Oregon’s blackened folk troupe Agalloch catch a lot of flak from metal heads for their un-metal jam tracks and soft riffing, which essentially means that they’re probably a good gateway band for the uninitiated. Be warned though, though the riffs are light, the mood is as black as you can get. Great for goths and the clinically depressed.

Now, go forth and spread the word of metal!

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With another long year of boozing, bonging out and headbanging gone, it’s time for metal heads world-wide to peel their faces off the bathroom floor and take stock of everything that’s gone down in 2009.

If one thing is for sure, it’s that metal grew exponentially as a cultural brand in 2009. Corporate sponsored tours (Nachtmystium/Wolves in the Throne Room brought to us by Scion?), a popular cartoon series (Metalocalypse), refreshingly accurate references in major motion pictures (Mike Judge’s grindcore forklift operator in Extract), a heavy-hyped documentary (Until the Light Takes Us) a New York Times academic expose on black metal… we blew up like Biggie. By now, it seems like everyone can name a few genres or at least has a friend who can. It’s not just for the weirdos anymore.

But as convenient as it is to talk about metal as a whole in big fancy self-aggrandizing statements, we here at The Faster Times like to go into a little more detail. Metal today is made up of many different genres and sub-genres and cross-pollinated subterranean sub-sub-genres, all of which are growing or shrinking in popularity at any given moment. To track them all we would require a cataloging system similar in computing power to the Matrix itself. But, since the Machines are still a few years away from their meteoric rise to power, I’ll just break down the year’s winners and losers as best I can.

Black Metal

The year’s undisputed champion of the winner’s circle, black metal went from being an obscure nerd hobby/basement fantasy to the hip and exotic musical indulgence of young narcissistic intellectuals in the space of just a few years. Black metal debuted on the global stage in the early 90s with a string of murders and church burnings. Not the most flattering presentation. But over the course of the decade the genre’s more ambient, sometime melodic droning riffage, not a far cry from the shimmering post-rock/metal craze, caught on with the hip modern music lovers (Xathur, Nachtmystium, among other culprits) and now fitted Burzum T’s can be spotted on hip kids with enormous glasses nation-wide. Even former Sugar Ray front man Mark McGrath wants to boogie down with his dark side.

Grindcore

Blast beats, power chords and pure rage, this little sub-genre had a big year thanks to a phenomenal album (Time Waits for No Slave) from it’s near-undisputed creators, Britain’s Napalm Death. A special grindcore issue of Decibel Magazine didn’t hurt either, nor did their championing of some wicked classic bands like Repulsion and Brutal Truth for a new generation of soon-to-be-deaf-and-brain-damaged metal heads.

Thrash Metal

There’s no denying that this little genre earned a spot in this years winner’s circle, but hoooooo-boy do I have some beef with how it got there. Thrash grew up in the late 80s, with Slayer, Testament and Metallica (believe it or not, they were, at one point, cool) leading the charge. Across the Atlantic, their German familiars, Kreator, Sodom and Destruction, raised similarly rabid hordes. Then Pantera showed up and it was all over for the beer n’ denim speedsters. Groove and grunge ruled the day.

Then a few years ago, young whippersnappers nation-wide dug their methed-out uncles’ high tops and denim jackets out of the attic and started shredding again like it was 1986. You couldn’t throw a crushed up empty can of Thunderbird in 2009 without hitting a gang of retro thrashers who were still being potty trained when Master of Puppets came out.

Appreciation for this new craze will hinge on your preference for either execution or originality. Thrash’s forefathers blended genres and pushed boundaries. With the exception of Revocation‘s groovy, technical thrash, I don’t see much in the way of forward thinking in these young muffins.

Death Metal

Realistically, I should split this category into about five different sub-sections, but for the sake of your attention span, I will spare you the torture. Anywho, death metal, long the flag bearer for the American underground, sadly stalled this year as it divided into two camps.

In the blue corner with the camo shorts, we have the classic death metal revival, endearingly intent on regurgitating everything circa 1990; buzz-saw guitar tone, bullet belts, neglectful hygiene and all. The achilles heel to this bruiser is similar to that of the aforementioned thrash revival. Why resurrect the sound while the classics are still fresh and more available than ever?

In the red corner, straight off the California coast, in the graphic tee and New Era hat, we have deathcore, death metal’s groovier, breakdown-infused, blunt-rollin’, 40-swiggin’ spawn. While not all that musically dissimilar from traditional death metal, deathcore’s aesthetic preference for more colorful, even hip-hop inspired apparel and general bro-core-isms have traditional death metallers crying foul.

Doom/Sludge

Maybe it was a decade of slickly produced pop sounds that did it, but distortion came back in a big way this year as many young bands dropped the tempo and cranked up the buzz. Baroness and Mastodon, though they no longer resemble the sound in its original format, have drawn hordes of rockers off the fence and into more metallic pastures. Expect to hear a lot more of this sound as marijuana nears legal status.

Folk Metal

Originally a Scandinavian invention (though some might argue Britain’s Skyclad coined the term and would murder me for putting them as the first reference in this article), the blending of traditional metal with folk instrumentation has become a global phenomenon. The past few years have seen more and more North American bands add a fiddle or a polka synth line to their repertoire and a fantasy/viking bend to their lyrics and imagery. Though markedly more sterile in sound than the dark, raw paganism of their forebears, this new wave of folk metal has attracted a whole new audience of D&D geeks across the nation with cleaner production and bouncier, more upbeat melodies. What they lose in mystique and musical depth, they more than make up for in the sale of bobble head vikings and novelty drinking horns.

So there you have it. Metal in 2009. May the coming year bring total global domination. Fear us.

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The art in question is metal. All kinds of it. Death metal, black metal, doom metal, grindcore, goregrind, thrash metal, death thrash, blacked thrash and blackened death (I could do this for a good two pages and never step outside the boundaries of truth). Doesn’t ring a bell? Don’t worry. I’m here to educate you. Think of me as your new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

If you think this course isn’t part of your curriculum you’re mistaken. Metal heads are growing in legion. Their ranks are expanding, oozing under the pretty face of pop culture, ready to burst. There are TV shows, glossy magazines, arena tours and corporate sponsors. Ask around and you may be surprised how many friends listen to black metal, or at the very least have heard of it. We are everywhere.

It’s not 1990 anymore. Extreme metal has moved out of the basement. It’s no longer the sole providence of society’s rejects. It’s no longer the province of young rockers disgusted with the consumer culture nightmare of the 80s, it’s a full blown global culture. It’s one that’s just beginning to be studied in academia.

Most of today’s metal heads are essentially a generation of nerds. They didn’t go to the “beer party” in their friend’s garage to get their first taste of grind or death metal; they found it on the web. The encyclopedic nature of the internet allowed for absorption of metal culture on a massive scale. No more tape trading or grimy zines. They did battle with one another in web forums, hurling obscure names and references like so many iron spears. File sharing allowed for some of the world’s most obscure releases to grace the ears of metal heads around the globe once more.

This massive level of interaction and accessibility has let us connect the dots between bands like never before. Were NYDM (that’s New York Death Metal) legends Immolation actually the world’s greatest stoner doom band? Is pagan folk metal just country music for Scandinavians? Was black metal the Soviet Union’s fault? Is Gojira dominating metal heads worldwide using hip-hop beats? Want to find out? Stay tuned.

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