May 7, 2011
Genteel.

Genteel.

November 19, 2010
I hit up Ron, Thunder Achiever, with some questions about TA and how they came to defile our pristine musical culture: “Starlight and I had been playing these hay loft parties in Kansas. Very strange, though we didn’t think anything of it back then. We’d drive out into the country and play in these—I mean, they really were barns, with cows and pigs and sometimes a llama or two. And some kids partying hard, like Midwestern kids do, in barns, in basements, out in cornfields. Hardcore kids, metalheads, meatheads, preps, stoners, and what you’d call a kind of proto-hipster, or the Kansas version, like Buddy Holly crossed with Buddy Hackett.   “Tom and Candy were from out-of-town. They showed up out of nowhere and were hot to play and be part of the hay loft scene. I thought they were real nice, but as musicians they seemed kind of… unpredictable. Then I learned that, as people, they were unpredictable, too. I mean, the second time we jammed with Candy, she looked like she’d just washed up onshore. I said, ‘You okay?’ And she said, ‘Let’s just play the fucking song already.’ Then when STL and I were playing her this thing we’d written, she just wandered out into the snow and didn’t come back. I thought it would probably be the last time I saw her, like I’d find her frozen to the ground going to work the next morning, but two nights later, she woke me up in the middle of the night banging on my door, telling me how much we needed to play together, but that this hay loft thing was bunk and we need to get the hell out of Kansas. She was kneeling on the the end of my bed as she said this, staring at me like she was either going fuck me or cut my throat. So I said sure, sure, I dig rocking out with you, too, and yeah Wichita was pretty lame, maybe we could check out the scene in Omaha or Lawrence. ‘No, fuck that shit.’ ‘Okay, okay, I hear what you’re saying, but we haven’t even really played a show together.’ Plus, I had a pretty good job at the co-op, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to give it up, because playing music full-time wasn’t much of a career plan. Well, when I said that I thought she was going to tear my heart out of my chest. She brought a bottle of Ballantine’s whiskey out of her bag and made me drink to the band. We split the bottle, and she made me watch one of those Faces of Death videos and kept saying, Like that, you see that, that’s what I want our music to sound like. “So then I knew that there was no way that I was going to say to playing in this band, and that I’d pretty much do whatever Candy said. Because if I didn’t she would die. She would literally lose her reason for living and die. So, that’s where it all started from, the hay loft scene.”     

I hit up Ron, Thunder Achiever, with some questions about TA and how they came to defile our pristine musical culture:

“Starlight and I had been playing these hay loft parties in Kansas. Very strange, though we didn’t think anything of it back then. We’d drive out into the country and play in these—I mean, they really were barns, with cows and pigs and sometimes a llama or two. And some kids partying hard, like Midwestern kids do, in barns, in basements, out in cornfields. Hardcore kids, metalheads, meatheads, preps, stoners, and what you’d call a kind of proto-hipster, or the Kansas version, like Buddy Holly crossed with Buddy Hackett.  

“Tom and Candy were from out-of-town. They showed up out of nowhere and were hot to play and be part of the hay loft scene. I thought they were real nice, but as musicians they seemed kind of… unpredictable. Then I learned that, as people, they were unpredictable, too. I mean, the second time we jammed with Candy, she looked like she’d just washed up onshore. I said, ‘You okay?’ And she said, ‘Let’s just play the fucking song already.’ Then when STL and I were playing her this thing we’d written, she just wandered out into the snow and didn’t come back. I thought it would probably be the last time I saw her, like I’d find her frozen to the ground going to work the next morning, but two nights later, she woke me up in the middle of the night banging on my door, telling me how much we needed to play together, but that this hay loft thing was bunk and we need to get the hell out of Kansas. She was kneeling on the the end of my bed as she said this, staring at me like she was either going fuck me or cut my throat. So I said sure, sure, I dig rocking out with you, too, and yeah Wichita was pretty lame, maybe we could check out the scene in Omaha or Lawrence. ‘No, fuck that shit.’ ‘Okay, okay, I hear what you’re saying, but we haven’t even really played a show together.’ Plus, I had a pretty good job at the co-op, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to give it up, because playing music full-time wasn’t much of a career plan. Well, when I said that I thought she was going to tear my heart out of my chest. She brought a bottle of Ballantine’s whiskey out of her bag and made me drink to the band. We split the bottle, and she made me watch one of those Faces of Death videos and kept saying, Like that, you see that, that’s what I want our music to sound like.

“So then I knew that there was no way that I was going to say to playing in this band, and that I’d pretty much do whatever Candy said. Because if I didn’t she would die. She would literally lose her reason for living and die. So, that’s where it all started from, the hay loft scene.”     

November 18, 2010
LBJCR
The Thunder Achievers
Chelsea Clinton Extended Playa
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

This new Thunder Achievers track provided by Ron, drummer. His verbal style a bit drier than T-Bar’s or Candy’s:

“Will, here’s a new song titled ‘Lyndon Baines Jesus Crack Rock.’ It’s a propulsive sixteenth-note driven song in the style of New Order or, to cite a more foundational influence, Blondie. The keyboard is overdriven and highly distorted and often ventures into deliberate dissonance and atonality. The guitar plays a chugging, largely rhythmic line alternating between one and a half chords: B double flat and B triple flat. The percussion plays a highly textural role, drawing on post avant-garde 1960s-70s European free jazz influences and/or rudimentary rock technique as interpreted by a not particularly bright third-grader or a dump truck accidentally backing over a set of drums. The lyrics, as usual, are fanciful non-sequiturs disguising a deep concern over contemporary geo-politics, in particular the deteriorating negotiations between Israel and Palestine and the economic realities that continually undermine the reality of a ‘two-state solution.’ The strutting chorus (‘Lyndon Baines Jesus Crack Rock is the best crack rock I ever had’) is of course a reference to the cultural imperialism implied by Johnson’s Great Society principles. Just as today, social programs that are considered basic rights in most developed nations were held out to liberals and progressives as the ‘crack rock’ that would keep them distracted, huddled together and trembling in the alleyway over their cheap narcotic palliatives, while the military state waged continuous war in far-off lands. The highly theatrical presentation of the song mirrors this absurd disconnect between political signifiers and the so-called ‘reality on the ground.’”

When asked if all this was discussed before recording the track, Ron, lead percussionist, replied: “Oh, man, we were totally g’d.”  

October 22, 2010
First Thunder Achievers band photo! I don’t know when they started doing this mask thing, though those are some pretty cool masks. And they slouch like a real band. Thomas “T-Bar” Barnett sent this my way. From left to right: Starlight, Ron, Candy, and T-Bar.

First Thunder Achievers band photo! I don’t know when they started doing this mask thing, though those are some pretty cool masks. And they slouch like a real band. Thomas “T-Bar” Barnett sent this my way. From left to right: Starlight, Ron, Candy, and T-Bar.

October 4, 2010
todayokay played Rickshaw Stop last Thursday, supporting our friends Vandella. We last played with them at Cafe Du Nord, maybe eight, nine months ago. We know they’ve played a lot of shows since, but, damn, those cats are sounding tight as hell. They also seem to be developing a gutsy, swampy, soul-inflected sound, like CCR or Dr. John. Their set had real shape and drama, and you can tell they’ve working hard to be a headliner, a band that can get people on their feet. Sadly, this was the last live show for todayokay, for awhile anyway. We’re recording new stuff, and writing some new stuff, too. So, when the band comes back, it will have a new sound, possibly a new line up. 

todayokay played Rickshaw Stop last Thursday, supporting our friends Vandella. We last played with them at Cafe Du Nord, maybe eight, nine months ago. We know they’ve played a lot of shows since, but, damn, those cats are sounding tight as hell. They also seem to be developing a gutsy, swampy, soul-inflected sound, like CCR or Dr. John. Their set had real shape and drama, and you can tell they’ve working hard to be a headliner, a band that can get people on their feet.

Sadly, this was the last live show for todayokay, for awhile anyway. We’re recording new stuff, and writing some new stuff, too. So, when the band comes back, it will have a new sound, possibly a new line up. 

October 1, 2010
Milkshake (cover)
The Thunder Achievers
Demo
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

As a little conciliatory present, I guess, Candy sent me this new track, a cover of Kelis’ “Milkshake.” Dig the bass. This shit is about to blow out my speakers. Thumpin’.

Says Candy, “This song came out in, what, 2003, 2004? I was a senior in high school up in Saskatoon, and I was dating this guy Curtis. Curtis played winger on the hockey team, and he had four teeth missing on one side of his mouth, and sometimes when we were making out, my tongue would hit his gums, and I’d taste this weird, wrinkly gums taste. It creeped me out, but it kind of turned me on, too. Maybe because I could imagine him taking that puck right in the mouth, and just shaking his head, swearing, and spitting out four teeth right there on the ice. Something about that just made him so tough and cool and sexy. Anyway, Curtis wasn’t so supportive of me wanting to rock out on in a band. This was back when I was playing in this super pretentious chamber-punk group called Wican Picnic—pretty dumb name [ed. uh…]—and we were playing lots of house parties. Curtis was used to being the big deal hockey star and everything, and he wanted me to quit. So, I said, What’s the big deal? I come to all your matches, you can come see my shows, right? It was actually a really big, heavy talk, because we were talking about our futures and what we wanted to do with our lives—he wanted to go semi-pro, I wanted to move to the States and play music—and at the end of the night, he told me he loved me, I was so different and unique and everything, and that he would do whatever made me happy. He was the first boy to say either of those things to me. So, he came to our next show and as a peace offering brought a case of Labatt’s (because he’d been kind of a dick to the other kids in Wican Picnic), most of which he chugged himself. He was moshing along to our music, and all of sudden he goes ass over tea kettle—slipped on a wet spot, I guess—and broke his arm in three places. That was the end of his season, and the end of his semi-pro career. I moved away not too long after that night, like I said I wanted to, but Curtis just stayed in Saskatoon, getting high and working at Sport Mart. So, ‘Milkshake,’ it always makes me think of him, and that’s why we decided to record it. We just let it come out however it wanted to. Plus, I couldn’t remember all the words.”

September 30, 2010

Thunder Achievers better than Dirty Projectors?

A bunch of us went and saw Dirty Projectors at the Fillmore on Saturday night. They are truly impressive. It’s actually hard to believe that a band playing rock and roll (more or less) can be so proficient, so cerebral, and so elegantly fractured in their approach. In 20th-21st century pop music, Dirty Projectors have to be one of the artiest ensembles to have won some love in the mainstream. I’m actually surprised so many casual music listeners like them, as they are, no doubt about it, a difficult band. And as someone who digs free jazz and beard-stroking instrumental “post-rock,” I definitely appreciate Dirty Projectors, especially their last album, Bitte Orca, which seemed to crystallize a lot of what they’ve been going for in previous albums.

So, the astonishing, laser-guided, often strident harmonies; the crazily but precisely out-of-time guitar solos; the ridiculously tight rhythm section—seeing Dirty Projectors live confirms their skill. They can pull all of it off. The song forms themselves are complex enough to cause fits, never mind that they are performed flawlessly.

But for all this, I found myself strangely unmoved. It’s strange to see a band filtering so much Afro beat/Afro pop through its own sensibility, and at the same time, stripping that tradition of all of its pulse and groove. This is deliberate, of course. Just like Talking Heads before them, Dirty Projectors are working with an abstracted and an intellectualized hybrid of rock and Afro beat. There is a strict discipline in this music, and it leans strongly in the direction of the austere and the anti-pop. As I do Talking Heads, I find Dirty Projectors a little harmonically static or un-involving. There are hooks to be found, but they are not the kind to stir you or set your foot tapping. True, there are some catchy and beautiful numbers on Bitte Orca, but they are outweighed by songs which (I think) are purposefully grating or hard to sing in the shower.

Thunder Achievers, on the other hand, are effortlessly grating, stupid almost beyond reproach, and write songs that could be played by children, rather untalented children at that.  

September 22, 2010

Who are the Thunder Achievers? Why are the Thunder Achievers?

An email from Candy, lead singer of the Thunder Achievers:

“Will! About the other night, I’m so sorry! I just didn’t know what to say…. Sometimes I have this thing, and, well, it’s hard to explain. Because you asked, T-Bar’s real name is Thomas Barnes. Thus, T-Bar. And, yes, my name = Candy. Full name. I guess my mom should’ve laid off the bottle for a minute before she filled in the form, but I like it, you know?

Anyway, I’m sure you R a cool dude, however, you got to stop disrespecting our music. We work super hard, and this is our life. We all came here to CA together to do this for real. For us, what’s important is that we are 1000% all the time. We don’t care about other people’s preconceived notions about what art SHOULD be. We believe in spontaneousness [sic] and doing whatever feels right to us. I/we will sing about sex and dogs and chowder, but these are just words. The important thing is EXPRESSION, and the passion in our music.

We are super-psyched about our upcoming EP release. We had a band meeting, and we want you there to cover the show. But you shouldn’t listen to everything that T-Bar (Thomas) says, because he has some pretty weird ideas. He’s in his own world a lot of the times, even though he seems perfectly normal. I think it’s because he grew up on this farm in the middle of Montana, with no one around, and he only had this shitty, broken ass guitar to keep him company. It only had four strings, and he didn’t know how to tune it right, and all that time spent alone kind of bent him somehow. Anyway, you will get to know him and the whole band, I hope.”

Okay, if I’m really going to become the Thunder Achievers’ handler, I already have a name picked out: Thunderarm Protection Management Co. 

September 22, 2010

todayokay played a one-nighter at the Shanachie Pub in Willits, up in Mendocino County. Definitely not our most glamorous gig, but one of our most fun. Everyone was welcoming and cool, and we got to see a little of this strange, rather hippie-ish place. Growers, hitchers, folks who’d just moved down from the hills and into “town.” We got some love and some requests and some people dancing. This was a loose place, beery and friendly. Reminded me of a better version of WD’s, the sports bar in Galesburg, IL where I used to (try to) play jazz every Thursday.

Afterwards, crashed at the ultra-cheap Lark Inn, where there seemed to be a lot of guys from some big geological survey staying. It rained through the night and into the next afternoon. Got up for burritos and a hike in the redwoods. Thanks to the assistance of natural substances, I got really into looking at this barn. And then on the trip back on Highway 20, the hills and valleys slipping by in the mist. (Also, Caribou, Andorra is the greatest album ever made. I understood it on a level I never have before and probably never will again.) Stopped at a wine bar where I was definitely not fit for regular human interaction. Sat out on the verandah, stared at the clouds and the aquamarine sky. Took a lot of pictures of clouds.  

September 21, 2010
Meow, Pussy
The Thunder Achievers
Demo
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Subtlety? Is that my reward for late night visits and incoherent interview subjects? “Meow, Pussy” actually tones it down a little, and if there’s any lewd rambling here (well, of course, there is) it’s strategically buried in the lo-fi haze. Also, that’s one catchy little keyboard line. Thunder Achievers seem to have an intuitive ability to deconstruct song form, something most fancy, arty bands spend their whole careers on.