The West Side scene

Landed, Arab On Radar, and Astoveboat
lead a new 'No Wave'

by Michael Caito

Landed

Sub Pop's Six Finger Satellite once included cards in a promo pack which implied that things were slow on the home front. I reminded singer Jay Ryan of that when he called to advise of a potentially lethal Halloween show. "No wave" was mentioned, though it's far more complex. Power saw to the foot, ouch, confronting and threatening. New times call for new danger, and Ryan pointed to Friday's show as Exhibit A.

Lightning Bolt and Forcefield toured behind a high-velocity Load Records single, and Istill endorse that squall after several spins. Ryan lent an Astoveboat glimpse on cassette. They feature drummer Dale Cunningham (Holy Cow, Glazed Baby) and a bassist. Landed (Land until a Cali band recently said no) include Dan St. Jacques, a person who set himself on fire during one set he will not soon forget, and whose foot never eases on the rock and roll throttle. It's keys and drums, bassin' and synthin' and feeding back. Also touring were Arab On Radar armed with a new one on Heparin. Both snarling, fierce like Six Finger can be. Most of Men's Recovery Project live in Richmond VA, veterans of years of Jersey loud which always piqued the interest of Load. Rock at its newest and rawest, and right here? Some would say.

In a Federal Hill kitchen I joined Six Finger bassist James Apt, Ryan and McOsker for coffee. Prominent refrig display of another supergroup, involving Ryan, Bob Jazz from V Majestic and Hydrogen Terrors-ist Guy Benoit. Shanghai somethin', didn't write it down.

Arab On Radar

Jay Ryan: Eric from Arab On Radar started Sunday nights at the Living Room, and we secured Halloween night. We're doing it mostly to play with these bands in town. There's good stuff going on in Providence now, stuff we're excited about.

Ben McOsker: The West Side scene.

The Phoenix: Satellite playing cards inside Severe Exposure said there was nothing new to report here. The other night on the phone Jay mentioned "No Wave."

Ryan: There are elements of it. How do you describe music that kicks you in the ass?Not to cut on pop music, but for a while this town was known for its pop bands.

McOsker: There are still people doing it, like Bermuda and Rebuilt Hangar Theory.

Ryan: I'm just glad the flip side is being represented, people are doing it well and bands are getting out of town and touring and putting out records. Ben's certainly been helpful as far as bands of this ilk.

Q: With numerous records and tours under your belt, is it more important to get the record out and then tour?Is it stupid to tour without "product"? Do you need someone back home working the phones?

McOsker: It's important to have a record out, but by the same token look at what Lightning Bolt and Forcefield did, going basically to California on a split seven-inch. I don't think it would've made a difference with the single or not. Obviously at this level of the industry you're not talking millions of dollars. If you're in this for the long haul . . .

Ryan: What's that, two years? I mean, we don't sell a lot of records. We got in at a time when a lot of labels were throwing money around. That is stopping. The industry as a whole on a larger scale is drying up. Same thing with booking shows -- it's harder and harder to tour. Clubs don't want to lose money. A perfect example is Jesus Lizard coming back and playing at the Met.

McOsker: Green Day are playing Lupo's.

Ryan: Bigger bands at smaller places. There are no arena tours anymore, and it's driving everything further and further underground, but I don't think that that makes the success recipe any harder to attain.You have to seek out and decide you're gonna do it.

James Apt: Because if you live in a remote area, seeing a band like Astoveboat is as thrilling whether you can purchase a memento after the show or not.

Ryan: It's the power and the greatness of live music -- witnessing something live -- that I think a lot of people either don't care about any more . . .

Apt: . . . or don't understand.

Ryan: And when it becomes financially unprofitable, it's just not gonna happen. It's going to be happening in people's basements and living rooms. That doesn't make things less valid.

Q: You know that having musical "validity" and thus getting people to see your shows is never a given.

Ryan: Conventions of being a working band are changing. We have a booking agent and a label that produces and distributes our records, but just because we have those things doesn't mean it's happening for us.

Apt: You can't be a good band unless you're good live. That type of thing haunts you, and there's no incentive for people to buy your record if you're as lackluster on record as you are live.

Ryan: So you go just to hear one song you like on the radio, and the rest is just . . . it's been the same thing for five years, and people are getting wise to it.

Q: Is that a good thing?

McOsker: The industry always goes like that, so now it's just "at this point." It'll go a little lower, I think. Bands are the last to get that message. They just keep going. Good music is doubtless always being made.

Ryan: You have to sift through more to find the good stuff.

Q: Is that why fanzines are important?

Ryan: As far as indie rock goes -- and I think major labels have figured this out too -- a good way to advertise is through fanzines. I can set up a fanzine and just get free stuff, not having any insight or caring anything about music. Just like bands, there are good ones, but there are ones that are just a waste of paper. With the Internet there are lots of chat groups and I see that as a viable outlet or alternative, though I don't know how effective it is.

Q: And college radio. Does a Lightning Bolt book-it-yourself tour rely on stations like these throughout the country?

McOsker: I listen to college radio. It doesn't sell records.

Ryan: SevereExposure was number one on the CMJcollege charts for two months, and that record sold 2000 copies.

Apt: We've done tons of interviews over the years, and [writers'] receptiveness comes down to whether it's an assignment for them or whether they've heard and enjoy the band. In some the questions are so broad that there's no way they've had a fleck of insight into what we're doing. Organic enthusiasm generates excitement. You can get all those free promos pretending you're a fanzine and writing ecstatic reviews on things, but intelligent people can tell the difference between hype and excitement. That gap is growing every day, especially in light of the industry's recent difficulties of trying to figure out what the fuck is going on.

Apt: Not to be a cliche, but I'm over 30 and work in a record store a coupla days a week near a college. I know people get their cues from Rolling Stone magazine and think people do want to hear something to excite and thrill them, but what do you do when so many bands can't even come up with two good songs to put on a 45? They come out with a great A-side or B-side. The days when records are mostly good from beginning to end don't happen any more. You get a band that makes one and you hold on dearly.

Ryan: Where are the days when a band can make two?

Apt: I know that when Astoveboat put out their record it will be right. None of these bands [playing on Halloween] are idiot savants. They have a complete understanding and control over what they do, and they make a conscious choice to make visceral sounds, not hitting you in either the crotch or the brain, but at some midpoint that fuses the two together. Our bodies respond, they're rhythmic, and you don't need to over-intellectualize it to understand it. And when you think about [their music] it makes sense.

Ryan: These bands are a reaction against complacency. You have to be like that. It's a way to keep going.

Q: And the Satellite on Halloween?

Ryan: Some new stuff. We're heading into the studio.

McOsker: Everyone expected their big makeover last record. They waited a record.

Apt: It's mountain oyster rock. Like rocky mountain oyster, but our balls are a little bit inflated on this one.

McOsker: Six-Finger-Metallica-ite.

Ryan: The next record [will be] more focused start to finish. Thematically linked.

Q: I missed any thematic links on earlier recordings.

Ryan: The last record was varied in certain ways, so in that way it was our best. For that sole purpose. But now we want the next to be more cohesive. A complete thought. That's the way Ilike records to be.

McOsker: It's gonna be a rock opera.

Ryan: It doesn't have to be a concept record, for fuck's sake.

Apt: The concept hopefully should be in the execution, not in the content.

Ryan: This time we're playing live before we record, which should make a big difference.

Q: After something like 12 releases, how do you keep challenging yourself?

Ryan: I like it when everybody's focused. It doesn't need to be spoken. [Ideally it's] a gelling process, when you know everyone is on the same vibe, and when you're recording it's at a peak. A certain amount of energy and smarts.

Q: Does it help that you've produced for others?

Ryan: Iwas joking about this the other day. Ihave three production hints when Iwork with another band:"OK,maybe you should have a Moog solo," "It would sound really good if you had a robot voice here,"and "This song really needs you to scream right about now." That's about it.

Six Finger Satellite, Arab On Radar, Astoveboat, Lightning Bolt, Landed and Men's Recovery Project appear Halloween night at the Living Room.

STARS & BARS. Manny Pombo has slain me more than thrice as part of the Cabaret of the Oddly Normal, which concludes this Saturday. In some humor similar to Meatballs/Fluxus, Pombo's episodes were my initial instances of "this place is spectacular!" He also does searing pain well. A quality run, Manny

Some said French composer Bizet, whose Carmen will be performed by the Western Opera Theater on Friday at Vets Aud, was a hypochondriac, though 33 performances after its debut his second heart attack ended him well short of 40. Bizet had thought it bombed. The only French opera more popular is Faust, and some of Carmen's arias are ranked as rarer moments of the form. Bizet thought it bombed. See you there.