Universal / Interscope · February 14, 2020

Tame Impala’s highly anticipated album, 

is finally here – and it is a love letter to frontman and mastermind Kevin Parker’s past, present, and future.

It’s been half a decade since Kevin Parker’s last critically acclaimed release 

 hit the headphones of his devoted listeners, and in those five years he has grown up in mind, body, spirit, and stats. During his hiatus, Parker got married (he recently celebrated his first wedding anniversary with Sophie Lawrence Parker), and only further proved his talents – collaborating with some of the biggest names in the industry including Mark Ronson, Travis Scott, James Blake, Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Theophilus London, as well as Kendrick Lamar and SZA (the projects were never released). 

, racking up around 1.23 billion streams on Spotify, helped launch Parker onto the worldwide charts, finding himself at #304, with just under 11.5 million monthly listeners – it is safe to say this period of time has been prolific.

However, on our side, it’s been pretty quiet. With two singles dropped in the early part of 2019, including “Patience” and “Borderline” – which debuted during his SNL performance on March 20th – fans anticipated the summer tour bracket (including headlining positions at Coachella, Boston Calling, Lollapalooza, and more), to be enriched with Tame Impala’s new masterful creation. Sadly, this was not the case, although it was a nice recap of his classic discography.

Come October, an ominous video was posted to Tame Impala’s Instagram featuring Parker in the studio. An extended version appeared on their website, overnight, including the title and release date of his fourth studio album: 

, February 14th, 2020. The world shook, or at least within the parameters of the Tame Impala subreddit. Deep fans and new recruits scoured the internet for more information. Then came “It Might Be Time.” The song is a reflection of a man growing up and accepting that things are changing and that he is ready to change with them – a departure in mentality from the brooding and nostalgic holding on that he struggles with in his previous works – specifically “Desire Be, Desire Go” from his premier album 

and “Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control” from 

. In this song, he grapples with the realities of getting older. He speaks of not being as cool as he used to be, he speaks of his friends moving on with their lives, promising to come visit. At least to me, a devoted fan of over eight years, this seems to be his way of updating his fans on where he is in his life after a long while of near radio silence (though, not literally). Sure, it’s not the seven-minute-multi-dimensional-synth-track many people expected, but it stands its ground as a truth for Kevin.

On December 3rd, the second single of the album, “Posthumous Forgiveness” dropped. A longing, loving, moment of reflective forgiveness, Parker opens up about his father leaving. This song has elements of his 

 vision: brooding, nostalgic, and synthy as hell, full of interludes and interpretive breakdowns. The difference however, is how he frames it; as the song transitions into its second half, the pain that he emanates in the first three minutes comes to a precipice in a modular climax, transitioning into a solemn yet peaceful acceptance of what has come to pass. In the context of the album, this is perhaps an initial step in moving forward, quite possibly towards becoming a father, himself.

’s final single “Lost In Yesterday,” proving the album to be not just a departure in mentality, for Parker, but also in musicality. In this synth-pop bop that decides to look forward, not back, Parker realizes his ability to embrace the future, while still being able to appreciate the past without getting lost in it.

 is a warm, radiating light straight from the heart. Tame Impala’s previous albums have addressed Parker’s feelings of solitude, loneliness and the general ennui of existence, but within the time between then and now he has seemingly found a new purpose: Kevin Parker is in love, and he’s not afraid to show it.

 is a warm, radiating light straight from the heart.

is Parker’s way of coming to terms with his changing life, finding a space for himself in this newly blooming life, “I never wanted any other way to spend our lives / I know we promised we’d be doing this until we die / And now I feel we might…But it’s okay I think there’s a way / Why don’t we just say one more year?…Not worrying if I get the right amount of sleep / Not caring if we do the same thing every week / Of living like I’m only living for me / Of never talking about where we’re gonna be / One more year / Of living like the free spirit I wanna be.”

 is a psych-pop love song that toys with traditional organ chords meshed into modulated synth tones, a clear allusion to his recent marriage.

 is a funkadelic promise of his devotion.

 is a moment of reflection and realization that each day he is a new person, and that the songs he wrote that once encapsulated him are no longer necessarily applicable (perhaps he is no longer making those same old mistakes); as the song trails off, a female voice is present, capturing (likely) Sophie Lawrence Parker saying, “yea, that’s the unknown.”

 likely regards Parker’s experience struggling to finish the album, noting to himself that he is still on track and that overthinking is not doing him any good. He recognizes that “it’s been a slow year”, and that there is “nothin’ much to show here / I didn’t really go for it, so not a lot to show for it.” In the past, Parker has made it abundantly clear that he is an overthinker, but he is furthermore a newly retired loner, as he mentions in the song, “So glad you’re coming over, I want to bring us closer”, a far departure from his mentality in 

“‘Cause I’m A Man”. Reflecting on his actions and their purpose, “‘Cause I’m A Man” is an ‘and so it is’ moment, stating that he is “a man, woman / Don’t always think before I do”, whereas in “Is It True”, though he is still grappling with his innate tendencies, he shows a new source of inspiration for his actions to follow (love).

 is exactly what one would expect it to be: a fun, disco-synth instrumental interlude, a grown up “Nangs” in disco-appropriate clothing, if you will.

, the final song on the album, loop-de-loops back to the beginning addressing the listeners directly: “Just a moment / Right before all the singing ends”. Here Parker lays out his mentality going into the creation of 

 and showcases where his head (and heart) is while coming to peace with this new lease on life. Touching back upon his aforementioned desire for solitude, Parker is clearly coming to terms with this new chapter of sharing his life–both with his wife, and the world at large (in terms of the stress and pressures of stardom). “As long as I can / Long as I can / Spend some time alone / As long as I can / Long as I can/ Be the man I am.”

 is a disco-synth pop love letter, forgiving the past, allowing in turn, acceptance of what is, and what will be. So was it worth the wait? I’d say so. As a listener, the album is a new and exciting direction for Tame Impala’s sound, and as a devotee to the movement, hearing Kevin Parker this happy and in love can only derive a sense of joy and pure satisfaction.

And just like the title insinuates, the album came slowly…then all at once.

FIRST LISTEN: Tame Impala’s ‘The Slow Rush’ was worth the wait

NxNU, WRBB’s annual Spring concert, is this Friday, April 12! Take a minute to get introduced to Michael Christmas, and we’ll see you at the show.

And on the twelfth day of April, we received Michael Christmas – a Roxbury native putting Boston’s hip-hop scene on the map. After the drop of his debut mixtape 

in 2014, Christmas began making waves up and down the east coast, gaining online traction and eventually landing a spot on Logic’s 2015 ‘The Under Pressure Tour.’

featuring D.R.A.M and Mac Miller. In 2017, Christmas entered the tour bracket, being named one of the ‘Best Of The Tiny Fonts’ by Consequence Of Sound (alongside Kweku Collins) following his Lollapalooza performance. 

He even became the voice for Burger King’s Jalapeno Chicken Fries.

, featuring Domo Genesis, Cousin Stizz and Tobi Lou (to name a few), dropped just months after signing with Fool’s Gold Records. Merging his musical proficiency with his adept wit, Christmas creates an album that is unseriously sincere, and head-bangingly heartwarming.

Want to hear more from Michael Christmas? Join WRBB at NxNU with Kweku Collins and Michael Christmas on Friday, April 12th at 7:00pm in Afterhours. (NU only)

Meet the NxNU Lineup: Michael Christmas

The audience silently held their breath, not daring to disrupt the hypnotic lullaby that lured us closer–until suddenly, all at once, that silence crowned into a righteous roar.

Somewhere under the soft pink glow and striking strobes that illuminated the stage at House of Blues, an angelic voice hovered in the air; in between modular sounds and techno drum beats, James Blake’s voice permeated the crowded room. Piano crescendoed as “Assume Form” began to play and Blake, who was dressed in a long, black tunic stood behind his keyboard caressing the microphone with his lips. The audience silently held their breath, not daring to disrupt the hypnotic lullaby that lured us closer–until suddenly, all at once, that silence crowned into a righteous roar.

Emerging from the UK’s underground techno scene and becoming one of “

,” the past few years have been monumental for James Blake. His latest endeavours include endless collaborations with the likes of Travis Scott, Frank Ocean, Bon Iver and Beyonce. In 2019, Blake was up for 3 Grammys (with one win) for his work with Kendrick Lamar on the song “King’s Dead” for the film 

, as well as a nomination for best new artist. Following up, Blake dropped his fourth studio album, 

 including features by Travis Scott, Moses Sumney, Metro Boomin, ROSALÍA and everyone’s favorite feature artist, André 3000. Upholding all the values a true James Blake fan appreciates, the album is full of heavy bass, heavy lyrics and technological experimentation that all give way to vocals akin to melting butter. I digress.

James Blake’s performance at House of Blues touched upon his latest work, while also giving proper ode to its predecessors; Blake’s voice washed over the crowd as “Barefoot in the Park” echoed from the stage, all eyes transfixed on him. Interacting with the crowd using his modular system, Blake recorded the audience’s cheers integrating them into the fabric of his performance, incorporating our voice into his as he introduced “Retrograde,” from his 2013 album 

 Looping his live vocals, he harmonized with himself, creating an authentic experience that was incredibly intimate despite the grandiose nature of the venue. The lights breathed with him, coloring the crowd in soft shades that danced along with the hypnotizing rhythm.

After a brief interlude, Blake concluded with the last track on 

, ‘Lullaby For My Insomniac.” He asked the audience to stay silent as he crouched down by the looping pedal at the front of the stage. Holding the microphone close, he hummed and hymned, looped it, and repeated until a choral melody was born. Quietly rocking back and forth on his two feet, he sang the audience into a peaceful, meditative state before slowly backing off stage leaving nothing behind but a mic stand and his quiet, looping vocals bidding the crowd a soft farewell.

James Blake assumes form at the House of Blues

WRBB’s Paige Ardill caught up with Gianni Aiello, Henry LaVallee, and Grant Mullen of Naked Giants to talk about inspiration, interdisciplinary creativity, and their tour with Car Seat Headrest.

Though Henry and Grant were childhood friends, I understand that the three of you met at Battle Of The Bands. How did that connection prompt the creation of Naked Giants?

Henry LaVallee: It was an ’80s themed concert night.

Gianni Aiello: I was in another band, it was synth-pop disco, and they were Naked Giants before I joined, but a two-piece. They did a cover of ‘Funky Town’ and ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This).’ We had just gotten out of high school and we were kind of at that age where it’s like, “Okay, I’m gonna explore this new chapter of my life; [I’m] gonna meet new people and hang out and make friends and whatnot,” so it was partially inspired by that, but with the music, they had just asked me to come hang out and jam and then we just started hanging out and jamming every day which is how we wrote a lot of our songs.

How do you think Seattle’s rich history of grunge has affected Naked Giants’ sound, if at all?

GA: I mean, it’s always there. I feel like you can’t really escape the whole nostalgia of it, especially when you’re talking to anyone who lived through it. The guy who produced our album 

, Steve Fisk, was there and recorded a bunch of those acts. I think that there’s this constant dichotomy of trying to rebel against it and say, okay this whole thing is overplayed and the whole grunge thing is over, but when you’re traveling the country and people are like, “Oh hey! Seattle! Grunge!” It’s kind of fun to play into that. To bring it back to the now… I think Seattle is super cool, there are a bunch of fans and artists who are boomin’ and groovin’ and touring and making cool albums.

HL: The grunge influence, for me, playing in the same venues these bands played at when you’re 18 because they’re just dingy clubs every band plays at–well, maybe not dingy. But places like Chop Suey, The Crocodile. It’s also cool because the grunge scene had a very DIY taste and flavor to it I think, so it was cool being in college at the same time and being in a band in college and playing house shows and Goo Mag–which is a great ‘zene’ name.

GA: Doesn’t everybody start a zene in college? We “faux” started this zene called Goo Mag which was just gonna be this arts and music thing but we ended up all putting on this Halloween house show and we all dressed up as Nirvana! Henry had a 

 wig on and he put the hat on backward and took his shirt off…

HL: Dave Grohl. My poli-sci teacher saw it on Facebook and was like, “Oh I saw a picture of you on Facebook with your shirt off. Lookin pretty good!” and I was like yea you know… I’m pretty self-conscious about my body so I think I did a bunch of sit-ups that week to prepare. That day I only ate like, a salad.

GA: It must have worked, worked on your teacher at least.

 for ANCHR Magazine, you mention that film is a big inspiration within your music. Separately, you’ve also mentioned the connection between songwriting and science. Could you elaborate on that a little bit?

GA: Totally! I appreciate these types of questions, we have a journalist friend named Craig in Portland, and he’s always saying that the job of a journalist is to just pick up where other people left off, and I feel like a lot of people don’t go that extra mile to pick up on stuff like that, so thank you. But, I think it was Grant that was talking about film… I’m not a huge movie guy, I like 

GA: It’s one of my favorite movies. One, two, and three, I think they’re all pretty good. But yeah, I was never much of a film buff. I’ve always been very interested in the sciences. My mom works at a pharmaceutical company doing clinical trials for cancer drugs, which is crazy, but I think part of that is just ingrained in me. But what attracts me to music is how it’s like puzzle pieces fitting together, compositionally, rather than the spontaneity of the live show. That kind of gets old for me sometimes. I really like to go into the studio or in my bedroom and just layer upon layer upon layer and just make it fit perfectly. That’s my favorite part about music. What inspires you, Henry?

HL: That’s a good question. I was a theater kid in middle school and high school and I really loved doing it, performing and playing drums in front of people.

Doesn’t your father own an instrument company?

HL: He was a luthier; he was a guitar builder so our garage is a little workshop. This is great! This is the first time LaVallee Customs is coming up in an interview. But yeah, that was something I started doing, my dad had a stroke, so he stopped using the guitar shop that’s in our garage, but all the tools are really great for woodworking and music stuff so I started taking old drums and refurbishing them using his tools. I’d hire my artist friends to paint them and do something cool with them. In 2018, we were on tour three weeks out of every month. We were never home. So while I was home I was like, I want to do something fun, and we couldn’t hold jobs because we were only around for a week at a time, so I started taking drums and reselling them which has been great. We used to actually do lighters; we’d sell Naked Giants BIC lighters, but we’d collage them with old magazines. Now I’ve taken that to a bigger scale with a kick drum and floor tom with space backgrounds from a Hubble Telescope book, penguin cutouts, and mountains from this Cascades book and other Life magazines. That drum kit is just for me but, I don’t know. Part of me just wants to finish it and see if I could sell it for $2000.

Could you walk me through your typical songwriting process, from initial conception to final production?

GA: It hasn’t really been typical for the past year and a half just because we’ve been on the road so much. I guess as of now we each independently write stuff and we’ll get a fragment of a song or a full one and bring it to the group, and at practice, we’ll run it and see what sticks. We’ve been using this ‘al dente pasta’ metaphor for a while now, when you pull the pasta out and throw it at the wall to see if it’s ready. So it’s kind of like that. Recently though, we went to the San Juan Islands, they’re super pretty at any time of the year and not many people live there so it’s just super wooded and green. We rented out an Airbnb on Lopez Island and were there for a couple days just kind of hold up writing and recording.

HL: That was great. When we were just starting I feel as though the general way we went about it was riff, drum part, bass part, some sort of chant… the song ‘Pyramids’ was great because we thought, “what if we just made a beat that stacked and stacked back” and then the instrumental part just kind of wrote itself. Every song is something a little bit different.

 you just wanted to yell something, anything.

GA: Yeah, I had written the song and all the music and whatnot, and I was with my girlfriend – the main inspiration for it was ‘Jet’ by Paul McCartney – and so I said it needs a “jet!” but it’s a grungy song and she kind of stopped for a minute and yells “SLUFF!” and I was like “nice!”. that was it, it just fit. It made the vibe of the song. She hasn’t gotten royalties or anything but I thank her on the daily.

Tell me a little bit about your relationship with Will Toledo, how did you guys initially meet?

Grant Mullen: Henry met him first, I think.

HL: Yeah, we played at a teen center in East Seattle, Bellevue. The suburbs. Will had just moved there from Virginia in 2014, I had just graduated high school. We were all just starting our freshman year of college and we had been playing together for about 3 months at that point, I was covering for a friend on drums at this little place in Bellevue. Ethan Ives was the opener, he was on guitar and it was me and my friend, and then Will played with Andrew and this other dude Jason on bass. Will had met Jason and Andrew on Craigslist and it was their very first show playing as a band; they played ‘Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales,’ they played ‘Cute Thing,’ it’s actually on YouTube, this specific concert. You can look it up. Type in “Car Seat Headrest 2014 Bellevue” and you can find it. The funny thing was, though, the only audience members were the other bands playing, nobody else was there on this Friday or Saturday night in the middle of the suburbs. So I said, “Will, come see my band play next weekend” and he really liked us, took us on tour in November right when Trump got elected. That happened while we were on tour in Albuquerque and we were like “we’re fucked.” I just remember that being the date. Anyways, then he messaged Gianni and asked if he played keys, which he does, and then he asked us if we could play in their band and we said, “only if we open.”

What is your favorite thing about touring with Car Seat Headrest?

GA: We get more money, we get more space, more food.

GM: It’s fun for me to play in their band and just focus on playing guitar and not have to be playing Naked Giants, just be focused on tone.

HL: I like playing the shaker for a whole song, I’ll just be standing there going “chuka chuka chuka chuka” getting hypnotized and loving it, and now the tambourine comes in, now the back beat, oh yeah!

GA: Being thrust from our level of shows, I mean we’d been playing 100, 200 capacity rooms and now this kind of stuff, it’s just kind of unspeakably awesome, and we’ve met so many good people and met a lot of great fans.

HL: I love playing in front of big crowds, it’s so fun.

GA: And Car Seat Headrest fans are so devoted, once they like something they’re like “I love this!”

What is the strangest thing that’s happened on the road, so far?

GM: There’ve been a lot of strange things, man.

GA: Our friend Jack came with us on one tour to sell merch and on the second day of the tour we were in Omaha, Nebraska, going to a Taco Bell drive-thru and he was out in the parking lot on the phone. By the time we had gone around and were going to pick him up, we found him on the curb with his arm up just bleeding profusely from his mouth and we were like “Jack what happened?” and he had fainted, he was anemic and had Crohn’s disease which he actually found out from that incidence. He had fainted and smacked his face head first on the pavement. Jack is a metal head and has gone to a lot of metal shows and broken his nose like six times, and that night the guys weren’t there, but I was sitting with him in the van making sure he was okay, and in his concussed mentality, he went to some really strange places. I have a lot of it recorded on my phone. I actually sampled it in a song for my solo project, Animal Camera. But yeah, he got really trippy with it, and we had to fly him home because he was not well.

HL: They said he couldn’t be near any loud noises or flashing light.

GM: Throw on some ear plugs, a blindfold…

, your debut album, in 3 words, what would they be?

Q&A with Naked Giants

WRBB’s Paige Ardill caught up with Kristian Dunn of the Los Angeles-based band El Ten Eleven to talk about storytelling, experimentation, and their new album 

 to their show at the Sinclair on February 9, 2019!

Music is something that stirs the soul, if there is such a thing as a soul, in a way that really nothing else can in life, I don’t think. For me, anyways, and for a lot of people.

What sounds or instruments do you tend to gravitate towards when you listen to music, either in your own work or the work of others?

There isn’t one, in particular, I don’t think, there are so many types of music I like; that’s a hard question. I guess I’m a sucker for 808s, so hip-hop 808 sounds. It can be a terrible hip-hop song, but if there are 808s in it, I’ll start nodding my head. Obviously, that’s made its way into our music, we may use them too much, but I just love them. It doubles as a bass and a bass drum. It’s an exciting sound to me, even after all these years, being used and overused. But there’s a reason they’re being overused, it’s because they sound good. One thing that usually, reversing your question, pulls me 

 is guitars. I don’t really like guitars anymore, which I know is crazy to say, because I use them, but unless I hear someone doing something really original with it, or the song itself is so good that the instrumentation doesn’t really matter, that’s fine. It’s a tired instrument in our country, at this moment in time. I still listen to plenty of music with guitar in it, but I gravitate towards people who are trying to do something new with it. But it’s the same with most any instrument; there are very few drummers doing anything new, very few bassists doing anything new, very few painters, sculptures, filmmakers, and once in a while a person does something new, but it’s crap because it’s too weird. It’s a stagnant time. That’s why I think certain artists are great, but I don’t use that word often because, in my opinion, I don’t think there are many artists who are worthy of the tag ‘great.’

Who would you consider to be great, at this point in time?

I just got turned onto these guys called Buke and Gase by a friend who thought I would like them, so I nodded my head and said, “I probably won’t, but okay,” but I listened to the first song ‘Houdini Crush’ and it was so good. I was so moved by it and I was thinking, “Alright, this is cool.” They’re doing some weird arrangements and instrumentation, but weird in a good way. It was still understandable, the lyrics were great, her vocals are fantastic. So I went down the rabbit hole to find out more about them and I found out they’re a two-piece, man and a woman, they build their own instruments and play drums with their feet while they play. There’s a bunch of technical stuff going on which is really interesting, which I don’t care about because I want to be moved, not impressed, but it turns out they also impressed me so it’s a combination. They’re kind of my new favorite band.

How do you go about telling stories through your music? Are they more structured narratives, or rather an encapsulated cathartic release of emotion?

I’d say more the latter, some are more narrative like ‘You Are Enough’ from our new record that has more of a narrative flow. If we were listening to it, I could explain what each part represents, but I realize that not many people are going to know exactly what I mean unless they hear an interview where I explain it. Some artists don’t want to explain their lyrics, which is bullshit, I’m happy to. To anyone.

What is your creative process like, from the initial idea to final production, or does it vary per song and per project?

It varies a little bit. Generally, it’s me at home in front of my computer with my bass coming up with ideas. If something sort of tickles me, so to speak, I’ll really go down that rabbit hole, and if I think it’s good I’ll send it off to Tim, my drummer, and we’ll work on it at band practice. It develops from there. The other way, Tim and I improvise in the practice studio and little things pop out and we record them roughly, so I’ll take that home and think “that was pretty cool,” and kind of develop from there. It’s the same thing as most musicians I think, even though we’re a weird band there’s no weird magic process.

How did Tim and you initially start working together?

I was walking into a coffee shop and an old high school friend was walking out, we hadn’t seen each other in years, so we caught up and he told me he was putting together a band with two drummers, one was electronic, one was acoustic and they needed a bass player. I went and practiced with them and it turned out Tim was the drummer, playing the electric drums, which I thought was super cool, and no one else was doing it at the time. That band never really worked out, but I knew I wanted to start El Ten Eleven, and I wanted Tim for my drummer because he’s so good and was doing different stuff. So I called him up and said, “Hey man, I’m thinking of starting…” and he interrupted me and said, “I’ll do it!” I found out later he really liked my plan and said whatever you’re doing I’ll do it, too. That was in 2002, I think, and we’re still going!

Where did the name El Ten Eleven come from?

It’s an old airplane. I’m a pilot, and I’m nerdy about airplanes. The real plane was actually called L-1011, and it was really ahead of its time technologically. Everybody loved it, the passengers, the crew, the pilot, but for political reasons they couldn’t make any money, so they had to shelve it and I thought, well that’s a great metaphor for us. We had a short list of names, and after we got our first gig we needed to pick one and this one stuck. I’m thankful it did because I still like the name all these years later.

Other than your talents in instrumentation, what do you think each you and Tim bring to the duo?

I think both of us bring a lot of dedication and work ethic. I’m realizing that our work ethic is very different from a lot of other people. We started doing side projects with singers and other musicians, and I was really taken aback by how long it took some musicians to get stuff done. At first, I was kind of surprised and offended by it, but now I’m realizing that most other people aren’t like me. I go, go, go, I don’t stop, I don’t take vacations. “I’m going to take 6 months off for sabbatical,” no that would make me insane. I think it’s the work ethic that we really share.

You’ve been quoted saying that you don’t use pre-recorded or click tracks during live performances, how do you think that has impacted your shows, both for you and the audience?

I think it makes it better. If it didn’t make it better we wouldn’t bother because for us it makes it really hard, but we’ve been doing it a long time so it’s gotten easier. What we do though, it’s hard. Not many people do it. In this day and age, where people are just hitting space bars and jumping around, I think that one of the reasons we are kind of successful, however you would define our success, is because people like coming and seeing musicians actually playing and doing something kind of challenging, something that’s emotionally satisfying and moving at the same time. And we are honest about it, we make mistakes. Sometimes if I mess up, I’ll stop the song and try it again. I think people appreciate that because there is so much phoniness in the music industry right now.

What do you see when you listen to it through?

It’s kind of a combination of things; when I first started coming up with these ideas I was just sitting in my room with my bass trying to come up with cool songs. I didn’t really have a theme sorted out, but I was thinking about where I lived, Banker’s Hill. I was thinking about my family, about the changes I’ve gone through and the anxiety I’ve come to terms with, and as that started to develop, stuff that didn’t seem to fit that theme began to get cut away, and the things that did fit started making the cut. When we started working with our producer, he sort of knew what I was going after. I had mentioned my daughter, and he said, when he was thinking about what was working and what wasn’t, he said he was thinking about Kristian thinking about his daughter. I had help, and I can’t emphasize enough how great it was to have someone I trusted working with us. When you write stuff, when you work on something for a long time you’re too close to it. You can’t see it anymore. To have someone who is objective who I trusted to stand back and say “oh this is great,” or, “oh this needs to be changed,” it was so helpful. I don’t want to make another record without him.

Music. I mean, my wife and my daughter, but music. It’s a bummer to be older now and be jaded and have a hard time finding music that really moves me because I feel like I’ve heard it all before, so when I discover something like Buke and Gase, I get really excited and think, “this is so cool.” I get emotionally moved by it, and curious about them and then start thinking about my own ideas and how they moved me emotionally and “does my music move me emotionally like that,” the analytical side can come in, but that spark, it’s still music to me. But that’s obviously separate from my wife and daughter and friends and family, which is a huge motivator.

Q&A with El Ten Eleven

Nirvana’s third and final studio album rocked the world and changed the name of grunge forever. Unapologetic in its creation, both the process and the product rebelled against the corporate environment the band had fallen privy to after their initial commercial success. Despite immense in-house disapproval, 

 went on to become certified five times platinum, selling over 15 million copies worldwide.

Having found monumental success from their second studio release

all eyes were on the west coast grunge band to deliver another chart topping album to succeed 

Originally estimated to sell only 50,000 copies, 

 clocked in at a whopping 30 million copies sold worldwide. Even more, it popularized the Seattle grunge movement and the genre of alternative rock. Still, this wasn’t enough. Unsatisfied with the refined and polished studio sound of their previous album, Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl set out to diverge from what they had created in search of something more visceral. To do this, they recruited the help of Steve Albini, producer of two of Cobain’s favorite songs, ‘Surfer Rosa’ by The Pixies and ‘Pod’ by The Breeders. Albini later told Michael Azerrad that, originally, he had only accepted the offer because he felt sorry for them, that they were a small fry band that sound like REM with a fuzzbox and were unremarkable to the Seattle sound. Regardless, Albini’s guiding hand lead Nirvana to a space where they could produce the sound they craved to release: Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota.

Over a two week period in February of 1993 in privacy of the northern woods, the band began to create. In order to keep from label interference, an important factor in moving towards their new sound, Albini suggested band members pay for the sessions out of pocket, himself only taking a $100,000 flat fee as he considered royalties to be immoral and an insult to the artist. Without the peering eye of their label The David Geffen Company, owned by Universal Music Group, the trio and Albini were left in a space of pure creative bliss. Utilizing Albini’s technique of capturing the natural ambiance of a room, the band began recording all of the songs together. The only exceptions were ones with faster compositions–such as ‘Very Ape’ and ‘Tourettes’–which were recorded in the kitchen to hone its natural reverb alongside 30 separate microphones. Noting himself as more of an engineer than a producer on this project, Albini supported Cobain’s vision; despite mistakes, they did not discard any takes and included virtually everything captured. When a song mix wasn’t producing desired results, they took the rest of the day off to watch nature videos, set things on fire, and make prank calls. It was peaceful, the only notable tension occurring when Courtney Love visited, reportedly being critical and confrontational. Regardless, the engineering continued as the songs began to take form.

After the albums initial completion, there was major backlash from the label with rumors that they wouldn’t release the album in its original state as it wasn’t commercially viable. However, after a strong disposition not to change, and only a few slight tweaks made on the their two singles by REM producer Scott Lott, DGC sent promo copies of ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ to American college radio stations in early September of 1993, avoiding the Top 40 market. Upon its release in late September, despite the overarching skepticism, 

entered number one on the Billboard 200 and received critical acclaim from its departure from 

Time’s Christopher John Farley remarked, 

“Despite the fears of some alternative-music fans, Nirvana hasn’t gone mainstream, though this potent new album may once again force the mainstream to go Nirvana”

Cobain later told Darcey Steinke from Spin Magazine in 1993 that, 

“in contrast to Bleach and Nevermind, the lyrics were ‘more focused, they’re almost built on themes’”

. These themes are inclusive of medical imagery, possibly in regards to Cobain’s outlook on newfound fame, as well as references to abstract literature Cobain encountered in high school (in regards to ‘Scentless Apprentice’). The cover, a mirage of childlike imagery, depicted a collage Cobain had made himself–an ode to his newborn daughter Frances Bean, perhaps. Regarding sound quality, 

 showcases sounds in both extremes. Ranging from raw aggression to candy pop, Critics began proposing that 

 could be considered one dimensional, in comparison.

After a Grammy nomination and a cut-short European tour, however, in early 1994 Cobain overdosed and went home to rehab. After disappearing out of the public eye, on April 8th, 1994 Kurt Cobain was found dead in his Seattle home having allegedly committing suicide. Three days after Cobain’s body was discovered, 

o moved back up the Billboard charts, from number 72 to number 27: a sick joke or maybe just a cosmic ode to another genius overcome by his demons entering the 27 Club.

has stood the test of time being noted in numerous publications as one of the best albums of all time. In contrast to their song ‘All Apologies’, the album remains an unapologetic ode to pure artistry and strong willed creation despite the outstanding noise and chaos of a corporate industry. Changing the face of grunge, Nirvana’s most controversial yet arguably best work will sit solemnly and proud next to their name in the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, forever.

Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’ turns 25

The night began in a colorful darkness; with a winding line out the door, Brighton Music Hall filled to the brim with head-to-toe Harajuku and sequin jackets that reflected off the disco ball hanging above. As the lights dimmed, one by one Kero Kero Bonito took the stage: the kick drum smacked, the guitar starts to riff, and the synths began to build in anticipation. With silver hair and a grateful smile, Sarah emerged onto the stage rousing the crowd into an immense roar.

The set opens with ‘Outside’, the first track off of Kero Kero Bonito’s new album 

– a massive departure from their previous just-for-fun synth album, 

 with the immediate entrance of distorted guitar and pounding drums –more dreamgaze, less chiptune. Performing without autotune, the perfected and polished song quality of KKB’s recorded discography was still palpable in their live performance, taking in their new environment and new found shoegaze sound in stride.

Their performance was warm, vibrant, and purely fun. Sat on the keyboard dancing along with the rest of the venue was a little toy bird that nodded and bobbed as ‘Lipslap’ and ‘Flamingo’ played. Smiling the entire time, Sarah interacted with the crowd dancing and jumping around the stage with plush toy animals before emptying trash bags of balloons into the air. It was a feel good show, but not in the cliché sense; there was a grand acknowledgement that things can suck and life can get hard, but let’s just pretend for a minute that they don’t, let’s be silly, and glittery and have a good time.

The show ends, and after a passionate cheer for an encore the band reconvened on the stage with cheeky anticipation. As the crowd chanted for ‘Trampoline’, Sarah screamed into the mic and the crowd broke loose. The center of the crowd opened up into a push pit (no mosh) and everyone began to jump and sing and smile as widely as Sarah is from up on stage. The venue felt like a home, the crowd felt like a family, and Kero Kero Bonito guided us through a moment of pure happiness that can only be described as wholesome.

Kero Kero Bonito bring wholesome fun to Brighton Music Hall

WRBB’s Paige Ardill caught up with Miami band Love, Abbey at Hojoko to discuss musical maturity and their upcoming EP 

How old were you when you first discovered your love for music?

Abbey: I only remember from my parents telling me, but when I was three years old I started doing voices for children’s dolls, the ones where you press their hands and their feet and they sing. I kept doing that, I actually did my last one about two years ago which is really embarrassing, because I’m almost 22 and I can still make my voice sound like I’m four. Eventually, I joined an all-girl rock band when I was fifteen. That was really fun, but I was the guitarist and it helped me realize I wanted to be the front person, so here we are.

Khristian: Well my dad used to plays drums, so I guess it’s a family thing. I got this toy drum set when I was about three months old and I was on my dad’s kit by the time I was two. I think I realized when I was eleven that I wanted a career out of it.

You’ve been doing voice-over work virtually your whole life, starting at the age of three. According to your website, over 60 speaking dolls worldwide contain your voice, what does that feel like, and what, if you can remember, was that process like?

A: It’s cool, I remember being ten or eleven and going to my friend’s houses and seeing the dolls in their rooms and being like ‘oh shoot’, and pretending it wasn’t happening. I liked doing it though. It’s fun to go to stores and still see them. They actually made the dolls to look like me when I was younger, so that’s pretty cool. It’s this brand called Lovey Doll, they’re based in New York and it’s a different learning lesson for every doll, ‘how to tie your shoes’ and ‘farm animals’.

you left behind the modern world, cell phone and all, and went out to a cabin in the woods to create. Were you taking a page out of Henry David Thoreau’s book when you decided to do so, and what was that like?

A: I’ve heard of that process from all of my favorite big folk artists, Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Sufjan Stevens, so I thought there was probably a reason for how it works, and it worked. I locked myself in this sketchy farmhouse cabin in the middle of this place called Hot Springs, population 400 people. It was only two weeks, so it wasn’t too long, but it was a good amount of time. There was a downtown street in the city that was the only place where there were businesses or restaurants, and it was about 45 minutes away. I went there about every other day and just sit at the diner. There were maybe two other people there, but I spent most of my time locked in the cabin… I didn’t want to leave too much. I had this whole rig set up, at the time I was just learning how to produce and record, but my dad gave me some tips. He owns a recording studio, so I brought my rig and some instruments and some ideas.

What is your songwriting process like, both lyrically and in terms of production?

A: Lyrics, melody, and chords tend to come all at the same time, I can generally finish a song within an hour. I don’t like to start and stop and finish it the week after. I like being in the moment with a song. Production wise, I’ve just recently started doing my own production. I write for a licensing company as well where I do all of the production myself because it’s very fast paced for commercials and what not, so I’ve taught myself how to be better with production. I do have a producer back home though, Josh Diaz. That whole album I wrote in the mountains, I brought him eleven songs that were kind of raw, but I produced them bare bones and he brought them to life. Lyrically, I write a lot of poetry, and sometimes I’ll have a finished poem and a finished song and fit them together somehow, but they usually just come the same time as the melody.

Who do you turn to for inspiration, both in your music and your everyday life?

A: My top three music inspirations are Bon Iver, Shakey Graves, and Sufjan Stevens. Even though some of my stuff is more rap or pop, those three just inspire me because they make music for the purpose of real music, they’re not in the business of selling. They’re in it for real reasons.

K: I think drumming wise I look up to Will Chapman of Colony House, Ryan Winnen of COIN, and Whisler Allen of Hippo Campus… those are my three favorite bands so I guess it’s fitting. There’s something about the style I like, the big drums, the big cymbals, and it all fits well with the stuff that Abbey has.

Your website noted that you play every instrument, which is your favorite to play live?

A: Favorite to play in general is piano, but I hate playing it live because I don’t like keyboards, I have a phobia of keyboards. They’re not the same as a piano, even if they have weighted keys and the whole thing, they just don’t feel right to me. I used to play, in my live shows, with a full keyboard, but it’s not the same. I really like performing without an instrument, I’m always holding one in the studio, so when I’m live I like not to be stranded to something.

As someone who has been making music since you were 15, how has your maturity impacted your craft?

A: It’s funny you say that. On the plane today, I didn’t have WiFi, so I could only listen to whatever was on my computer, and I was listening to old old 

 demos I recorded on Voice Memos when I was like, 15 and oh my gosh they’re so bad. I think I opened up to collaborating and taking in opinions and critique more as I got older. In the beginning, I had the mindset, ‘I know what I’m doing and the songs I’m writing are perfect’, but now I’ve been co-writing more, not on my personal stuff but on other projects and I’ve realized that everybody has credibility in their opinions.

What is your favorite thing that you’ve created so far?

A: I haven’t released it yet, but it’s called ‘Miss Me’. It’s an orchestral piece, I’m composing the score for it for a symphony to play down in Miami. I wrote it in the cabin, it’s very special to me.

K: For a while, it was my least favorite song to play but now I think it’s either ‘Winter Air’ or… what’s the rap one called?

K: ‘Early Morning’. I couldn’t stand that song because there are a lot of track parts on it, sample pad or whatever, but now it’s really fun to play. They’re all pretty fun.

Your latest release ‘Winter Air’ seems to be

hinting towards an album, is there one coming in the foreseeable future?

A: ‘Winter Air’ is part of an upcoming EP called 

 Everything has that vibe about it that ‘Winter Air’ does, kind of dark and spooky. There’s another single on it called ‘Early Morning’…I rap in it.

Q&A with Love, Abbey

The Frights somehow turned the Royale into one of the best basement shows I have seen thus far…

With a thrash of drums and a wail of electric guitar, The Frights, a San Diego native band fueled by surf rock and driven by basement grunge, took the stage of The Royale by storm while on tour with openers HUNNY and Hot Flash Heat Wave. To promote their new album 

, the band dressed the venue to match the cover of their latest release covering the stage in lampshades and stacked suitcases perfectly highlighting the bucket hats and Converse that jumped across the stage with avid enthusiasm. Turned onto the band just a few months earlier by a San Diego native, herself, I was excited to see how an intimate basement show could be translated into the club setting of The Royale–I suppose the décor was a good start.

Kicking off their set with ‘Kids’ from 

, the crowd was sent into a mosh, the entire venue pushing forward to head bang with the band. Others from the set list included ‘CRUTCH’ and ‘Me And We And I’, both off of their new album ​

, intermixed with older hits such as ‘Crust Bucket’, my personal favorite, and ‘All I Need’, all drawing an equally enthusiastic reaction from the crowd. Slow song or headbanger, each was welcomed with furious commotion and attempted crowd surfing from the audience. Be it the friendly faces that danced across the stage or the lyrical relatability, slowly but surely the grandeur of The Royale began to shift out of focus leaving nothing but us and the music at the forefront of our minds.

Towards the end of the set, the rest of the band left the stage leaving vocalist, Mikey Carnevale, alone with his guitar some wine. After an acoustic song or two, Carnevale said to the crowd, “We used to play basements”, provoking an uproarious response as he sipped on his wine from a plastic cup. “Chug it!”, someone yelled from the audience, others chiming in. “I’m not chugging wine, I’m not chugging it. I’m not doing that”, Mikey stated before chugging at the mercy of the crowd’s chants. For a brief moment, before the rest of the band returned to the stage with a three-song encore, we were all together. We were in a basement, at a party, playing music with our friends and having a good time…it wasn’t us and them, it was just ‘us’.

As ‘Tungs’ played, the crowd danced with the two inflatable men that thrashed and thrived on opposite ends of the stages. With smiles on our faces the show ended the way it started; together.

The Frights turned the Royale into one of the best basement shows I have seen thus far, somehow turning the attention away from the gaudy silver gargoyles to focus in on the emotional intimacy that lives in smaller venues. The show epitomized what I consider to be the perfect Friday night: a little booze, a lot more dancing, and a whole lot of rock ‘n’ roll.

The Frights give fans the perfect Friday night at the Royale

WRBB’s Paige Ardill caught up with Eddie Gore of Future Generations to discuss friendship, growth, and their new album 

Future Generations will be playing the Middle East on 

Your website states that Future Generations is a “by-product of over 7 years of creating and performing music,” both as friends and as colleagues. Can I ask, how did you all meet and where did Future Generations begin?

Some of us have been together since freshman year of college. We all met at Fordham University in our freshman dorm, myself, Mike, and Eric met in one of the practice rooms of that building and we all just started making music together for fun and putting it online. Later on I met Devon, the bass player, in line for a school dance. Dylan we met almost three years ago off Craigslist. We needed a new drummer, we had been using one of our buddies but he went off and started his own project, so we needed somebody to come in full time and be apart of what we are doing, and we’re lucky enough that we found Dylan.

When it comes to the creation of music, what is your songwriting process like from inspiration to production?

Usually the two people who start out songwriting are me and Mike. We start out with sounds, whether they’re synths or dumb beats, and we usually build around that. I work in Logic and I do a lot of my songwriting there, usually with the music and melody first and moving on to lyrics afterwards. As far as inspirations go, it’s hard to really pinpoint anything; anything ranging from hip-hop to punk rock to singer-songwriter stuff, we’ve all had a wide variety of influences throughout our life, and they’ll all peak their heads every once in a while.

What kind of music do you listen to around the house? Does everyone have different tastes?

Around the house, we’re always showing each other new music that we’ve found. I’m more of the one who is on the discovery front so I always try and find the newest, best thing to show everybody, but everybody else usually plays older stuff. A lot of indie rock, but occasionally hip-hop and R&B as well. Frank Ocean was a big one last year, White Reaper was huge for us last year as well. Sylvan Esso, Hippo Campus, Phoenix, those were all what we were listening to during the creation of the record.

How do you think the friendship that you have built 

 upon positively impacts you both in terms of creation and just day to day life?

It’s really impacted me positively, personally. I have a group of best friends I can call at any moment. I’m around them a lot of the time, and I can really just be myself around this group of guys I really admire and respect, and that translates into the creation part of it, I trust them to be great musicians and forward thinkers and really put their best foot forward in every way. It’s something I don’t take for granted, and I think I’m very lucky.

If you could go on tour with any band or musician, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

That’s a great question… I’m gonna say if we could go on tour with Muse, that would be awesome. We had this crazy experience last year at Firefly. We got to see them play, and they just blew our minds. They bring this type of energy that we try to bring on stage; it’s very loud, very in your face, but it’s also heartfelt and genuine which is what we strive for. Either Phoenix or Muse.

did quite well, the song ‘Stars’ reaching over 10 million streams on Spotify. How did you react finding that out and what makes that song so special?

That song has really put us where we are today and we’re very thankful for it. It’s been around for a while, actually, and when we released it with our album it has already been written and recorded for maybe three years. We’ve had the song around, and we always knew it was a strong song and we always liked it, it was nice to finally get that recognition from other people. It kind of validated what we’re doing and gave us permission to keep pursuing this and keep getting better.

Was it the song you thought was going to attract commercial success?

Yeah, we kind of knew it would be when I first wrote the initial hook and song, I sent it over to Mike through Facebook and he said, ‘This is great, it’s gonna be great’, we just had that feeling, you know? It came together so easily, it’s hard not to.

 both in terms of growth as well as style?

Individually, we’ve grown and matured, we look at songwriting in a different way. It’s more of a way to voice our current situation as opposed to something that’s loud and fun and poppy. We have grown in terms of learning how to be musicians and write songs, and I think it’s pretty well reflected in the new album 

and I hope everybody else sees that. We’re pretty proud of the growth we’ve made really stretching ourselves to do something new and exciting we can be proud of.

Do you have a favorite song from the album?

My personal favorite is ‘Incomplete’, the last song on the album, but it changes day to day. All of them have a special place in my heart.

Does that differ from your favorite song to play live?

Yeah, my favorite song to play live is ‘Landscape’, it’s just so fast and loud and energetic and for me, personally, I have a lot of fun up on stage.

Future Generations is stopping by the Middle East on October 24th. Grab your tickets 