STACK Magazine April 2015 Issue 126

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Only three brothers from
Yorkshire on a shoestring
budget get away with filming
a clip in The Bahamas, with a
pig, in 2015. But The Cribs –
Gary, Ryan and Ross Jarman –
did just that for single Burning
for No One. "It seemed surreal;
it seems extravagant but it
was really basic," says Gary,
speaking to STACK from
Portland, Oregon. "I’m not
confident on camera,
but hanging out with pigs it’s
impossible to take yourself
too seriously!" Their new
album For All My Sisters was
produced by Cars luminary
Ric Ocasek: "You’re
like, 'I had no idea
they wrote that song!
My Best Friend’s
Girl!' I like what Ric
represents: it’s a
great pop song, but
he comes at it from a
very left field, weird
viewpoint." The cover
of the new album
is a screenprinted
pop-art collage by the
band's friend Nick Scott, and
The Cribs are looking forward
to seeing it on vinyl: "It looks
really tactile. It'll look great on
12-inch, definite."
084 APRIL 2015 JB Hi-Fi
visit NEWS MUSIC
K anye West has dubbed his upcoming album So Help Me God.
Having dropped several singles online – including his surprise collaborations with ex-Beatle
Paul McCartney (the recent single Only One) – the release of his seventh album is imminent.
West, of course, hasn't been adverse to publicity lately; from gatecrashing Beck's Grammy
party to various Kardashian-related media hijinks, he's hardly been invisible. But
next to the strides his music has made with the acclaimed My Beautiful Dark
Twisted Fantasy and Yeezus, the rapper/producer's personal eccentricities
hardly seem important. West also performed the track Wolves alongside
Sia and Mensa on Saturday Night Live’s recent 40th anniversary special, and
his performance of All Day – complete with pyrotechnics and a stage-filling
phalanx of highly choreographed dancers – was the talking point of the
evening. West will also headline Glastonbury 2015, a performance to which
he will no doubt bring his trademark controversy.
Michael Angelakos (right) is the heart and
soul of Passion Pit. After the euphoric
eruption that was 2012's Gossamer, Angelakos
is wearing a slightly more reflective hat for new
album Kindred, although the pop-rush and electro
sophistication associated with Passion Pit remain
in spades. "These are honest songs about real
people, real scenarios that happen," he tells
STACK. "But I take on a certain role and I distance
myself through Passion Pit. This isn't necessarily
'Michael Angelakos singing' – it’s Michael
Angelakos singing through a filter."
After Angelakos's well-documented ups and
downs, audiences have tended to take every
word literally. It's not lost on the singer. "The
title, 'Kindred', is not necessarily honest, literally
speaking. People are like, ‘So, this record’s
about your wife?' I'm like'NO!' You just give up.
I wish I could just write a record about my wife."
Another great example of life and metaphor
colliding resides in the album track My Brother
Taught Me to Swim. Angelakos's younger male
sibling didn't literally help him out of floaties,
but the song is about him. "He came back into
my life recently. He’s given me such amazing
perspective and he’s helped me through really
hard issues," Angelakos says. "It’s an amazing
thing when you connect with a sibling later on
in life when you’ve been distant." But music
remains the great healer: "There's no better
way to deal with the anguish we all deal with...
Listening to a record, blaring on headphones in
your car, or at a show, singing
lyrics with everyone."
continued
PAssion pit are
kindred spirits!
God help kanye west!
Sitting down with
POkey lafarge
Q1/ Your music is
a timeless brand of
rootsy Americana;
why does this style
continue to connect
with audiences?
It's always been
alive: it's never died. It's
music that got its birth,
and it's evolution, via the
underground – it's never been 'popular music.' The
Grand Ole Opry has always been a 'thing' but only
a small percentage of artists make it to the Grand
Ole Opry. But blues, jazz – very few genres had an
outlet like Grand Ole Opry. It's always been music
of the people, created by the people and preserved
by the people.
Q2/ What is intrinsically American about your
music that even Americans don’t understand?
Some Americans take culture for granted. Music,
architecture – things that people through blood,
sweat and tears worked to create and preserve.
The slang sometimes people don’t understand: they
might understand the word I’m saying, but not the
context. It’s a huge part of the music. A lot of people
don’t understand that the influence of the Germans,
in America and in Mexico, was a huge. A lot of the
early brass band culture comes from Germany and
that influenced the early parts of jazz.
Q3/ Preservation Hall is seen in the New
Orleans episode of Foo Fighters' Sonic
Highways series. It’s tiny, there’s no PA, it’s
just a room. Have you played in there?
Oh yeah! I have. That’s the great thing about
early music. People’s ears must have been totally
different. Go back to rock’n’roll in the ’50s: you have
1000 screaming fans, there’s one PA speaker about
them, the bass isn’t miked, the drums aren’t miked,
the only thing that’s miked is Chuck Berry or Elvis’s
voice, and the guitar is just blaring. Go back before
that : they were having dances with 3000 people
with bands that weren’t even miked. Preservation
Hall was like that, but it only fits 50 people! You
don’t need a PA, you don’t need electricity. But, for
every Preservation Hall, there are 100 other places
people don't know.
Q4/ Tell me about the video for Something
in the Water, with the girl chasing you up the
street with a baseball bat.
We were trying to have fun, trying to accentuate
the absurdity of the conflict that often arises in a
relationship. No matter how tough things are, people
still love each other. That's my partner in the clip;
she's the one I wrote the song about.
Kindred by Passion Pit is
out April 17 on Sony Music.
cribbing away for the sisters
For All My
Sisters by The
Cribs is out on
Sony Music.
Something in the Water by Pokey LaFarge
is out now via Universal. He tours April 8-12.