[Real Estate - ]

Wednesday
[ticket giveaway]

Thursday
[sold out]
[popscene] [free w/ rsvp]
[college night]

Friday

Saturday
[record release]

[ep release]

Sunday

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ed: This interview was conducted in July of 2011. Royal Baths played their last show as a San Francisco band on August 6th as a part of .

by Mariana Timony

When I call Jeremy Cox of to let us into his Haight apartment, I’m surprised by the youthfulness of the voice that answers. I’ve been listening to Royal Baths for the entire drive up to San Francisco, and young is not a word I would use to describe disquieting songs like “Bad Heart” and “Needle and Thread”.

When Jeremy appears, he’s definitely young - 23 years and 3 days at the time of the interview, to be specific - but he’s dressed like an old photograph: hair parted and slicked back, white shirt buttoned all the way up, black cardigan, and pressed black slacks. His long lashes are darkened with mascara. When I ask him about his attire he says he dresses like this everyday.

Jeremy leads us up a tiny flight of stairs into the house. It’s constructed strangely-there’s a bathroom off a kitchen and windows too high for anyone to see out of, like the Winchester Mystery House or the interiors of a Hitchcock film-San Francisco to the core. We meet singer-guitarist Jigmae Baer in the kitchen where it appears the two have been at work on a 1/4-full economy size bottle of Jim Beam. They’ll polish it off during the interview. Accompanied by the whiskey and a box of cookies, we follow Jeremy and Jigmae up yet another flight of stairs towards what must be Dorian Gray’s attic, or so the gothic atmosphere would suggest.

But no. When we reach the top, it’s the prettiest room I’ve ever seen, a tiny jewel box of a bedroom encased in glass. Sunlight pours in from the surrounding windows and french doors open up onto an unguarded ledge (more like a rooftop, but who can tell in this jumbled up house). The view is what stuns us the most - a panoramic postcard vista of San Francisco, framed by the blue of sea and sky.

“When I moved in here I said that if I ever moved out I would have to leave the city,” says Jeremy. This is exactly what Royal Baths are doing. They’re taking the opportunity to turn next their tour across the United States into a full scale relocation. When Baths get to New York, that’s where they’ll stay. They don’t know who they’re playing with for their “last show” in San Francisco, and don’t seem particularly interested in learning either. It’s clear that, for better or for worse, Baths are done with the city.

Here’s the thing: despite the candy brightness and youth-oriented culture that’s been its calling card since the Gold Rush, San Francisco is a difficult city to survive in, primarily for the young. It’s sinister how so pretty a place can be so harsh at the same time. Baths’ music has heretofore drawn from a darkly lit and brutally honest view of San Francisco, but soon they’ll be working with a new geography, musical history, and identity. New York is a city that, in some ways, is the diametrical opposite of San Francisco. I can’t wait to hear what Baths do with it.

Where did you guys meet?

Jeremy: Jigmae and I met when I was in Arcata, which is where I’m from. We just kept running into each other, and I moved to Portland, Oregon during my senior year. We kept in contact for a few years before I came here and we started playing together.

What do you think is unique to San Francisco that makes it have such a defined sound, for lack of a better word. What about this geography promotes the sound?

Jigmae: For rock and roll, the coasts seem to be focal points for gathering artists. Between Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, San Francisco is pretty appealing. It’s hard to live in San Francisco, though. It’s expensive to be a part of a band and even just to live here. That pressure must inform the music. Pressure is a lot more prevalent here than in Portland, where it’s very easy and laid back. L.A. is kind of a little schmoozy from my perspective. San Francisco is the first choice for me on the West Coast. It’s the middleground of not being an asshole but also being serious about your music.

Jeremy: I feel like SF is more of an incubator for music and creativity and when bands go outside they’re appreciated more than when they’re actually in the city. It’s always interesting to see.

What’s the most exciting thing about moving to New York, which has a totally different musical history?

Jigmae: New inspiration and learning new things is really exciting for us. That’s the beauty of it. You can’t foresee how you’re going to be affected by change but it’s an exciting prospect rather than facing stagnation and playing with the same ideas.

Do you think San Francisco needs an all-ages venue, like the Smell in Los Angeles?

Jigmae: Very much so.

Jeremy: The city’s starved for any all-ages venue or any DIY venue. A lot of people have tried to start them, but they’ve been crushed.

Jigmae: Crushed mercilessly. We were excited for our last warehouse show because it was all ages. The cops broke it up after the first band played. It’s just a shame how rigorously they’ll shut down these cool things.

Do you like warehouse shows?

Jigmae: Depends on the warehouse, but those are my favorite if they’re done right. There’s some shitty warehouses, but the good ones…Also, something thing that’s exciting about New York is that our experience with warehouses there is that they’re really well supported.

Why do you like warehouses the best?

Jeremy: I feel like people running the warehouses are very excited to be there, they’re obviously voluntarily there and setting everything up and they’re involved. Whereas at bars people are kind of…they don’t really want to be there and be dealing with bands. That’s not always the case.

Jigmae: There’s some good people, but it can be weird.

So what are your recording plans?

Jigmae: We finished our second record and beyond that we have 7″s that are embarrassingly overdue to turn in so theoretically we’ll be finishing some singles. They’ve been so delayed that it’s hilarious to say we’re going to finish them. I think it’s three of them now that we have to turn in. Beyond that we are actually preparing for a third record. We have at least half a record ready. We’re just raring to go.

Will that be recorded in New York?

Jeremy: Probably. I kind of had fantasies about going to New Orleans and recording during tour. That’s a beautiful town and it has a romantic charm to it.

Are you guys fans of My Bloody Valentine?

Jeremy: I’ve never listened to them.

Jigmae: Yeah. I respect that band and listen to them occasionally, but very infrequently. They are in that vein of that sound, that area of music of bands that we listen to.

are the ones who recommended Royal Baths to me. Their band seems to be building on the same sort of influences as you, but their music sounds completely different.

Jigmae: For anyone to make anything worth listening to it’s based upon the influences in your life. It comes from yourself so it’d be kind of frightening if our bands sounded the same. Hopefully we’re not clones.

Are you into noise bands at all?

Jeremy: I feel like noise is something that occurs within a project that doesn’t necessarily have to be defined. When it is the definition of the whole project it can become overbearing or obnoxious.

Jigmae: I got into really heavy noise and I’m kind of past that, but it still stays in my head. You’re just a product of different phases in your life. I feel like with the best noise bands, if you strip it down, you can still find some folk structure in it.

Are your songs basic in that sense as well?

Jigmae: The root of them, the essence of them, are folks songs, blues songs.

How do you write your songs?

Jeremy: Jigmae and I will come up here and I’ll have an acoustic guitar and Jigmae writes all the lyrics. So he has a typewriter and I have a guitar. It’s nice to not be attacked by iPhones and computers where you’re trying to write a song. Silence is a huge part of our songwriting.

Jigmae: It’s nice to just see the words on the paper in a nice font as you go.

What kind of equipment do you guys use?

Jigmae: Marshall stacks, the bigger the better.

Jeremy: We use the same guitar amps for recording. I like to explore to get sounds on a record, not have each song sound exactly the same. So for our sound we change guitar amps a lot and also for our sound we sing through guitar amps just because I like the sound.

Jigmae: It’s also a question of poverty and what’s available to you.

Jeremy: On our first record we used one microphone for every track except for the drums. It was just out of necessity. We did it track by track.

Jigmae: Jeremy’s really into building guitars, he always seems to always have a new Frankenstein guitar.

Jeremy: I love taking things apart.

That’s really cool that you build your own guitars.

Jeremy: My uncle helps me. I’ll go to his house, which is up north a couple hours, and he’ll help me put together a guitar. It’s always nice to build your own.

What’s your favorite guitar you’ve built?

Jeremy: Embarrassingly enough I like the Wayne’s World reissue guitar from the 90s. I like how that one feels. I put new pick ups in it, and that’s my favorite. Some of the cheap guitars feel a lot better than the more expensive ones. With equipment, I don’t like to focus on aesthetics. I like a guitar that I can trash around.

On “Litanies” you used a lot of different instruments like the xylophone. Are you going to be using them again on your new record?

Jeremy: I don’t know if the xylophone will be finding it’s way back. I took cello lessons for three or four months. I’m not really too fond of keyboards. We’ll probably try to incorporate more string instruments. Sometimes the electric guitar gets kind of tiring.

Your band recently released singles on a European label. There seems to be a historical kinship between London and San Francisco and a lot of residents really appreciate our music more than local residents do.

Jigmae: There’s a strong history of rock and roll in England some of Europe and, just from what I’ve seen, their generation is not really pursuing making that music. It’s more been electronic based. So I’m sure they’re hungry for it, they’re just begging for it.

Are you not into electronic music?

Jigmae: There’s the occasional band that strikes me.

Jeremy: It has a place. I would hate to say I don’t like an entire type of music. It’s always frustrating when people say that because it’s really band by band.

Jigmae: We listen to Suicide and Kraftwerk.

But just because you play synths doesn’t mean you sound like Kraftwerk.

Jigmae: I try to stay away from negativity.

Jeremy: A lot of synth music tends to be super power poppy and that kind of stuff just bugs me, but, then, guitars do too.

When people talk about your band and how you fit into the San Francisco scene, they always say that you made the music that you guys wanted to hear, that you thought was lacking in the area. Do you feel like your music is “dirgey” and “funereal” and other words that reviewers have used to describe you?

Jigmae: We have mottos of the month and we come up with a new one every so often. The latest one was, “The Baths are here, the party’s over.” We’re not making something to our ears is ugly, we’re making what to our ears is beautiful. It’s how you perceive beauty and maybe our perception of beauty is different. We just try and be honest. We don’t try to dwell. It’s just an honest reflection of our lives and the lives of our friends around us. If that comes out as sad then…We’re just trying to look at things as they are, clearly, and not trying to skirt around things and create a false persona.

Jeremy: I also think our music isn’t necessarily dismal or sad, there’s a lot of comedy in it.

Jigmae: It’s satirizing the sadness sometimes.

Jeremy: A lot of it’s satirical and I think people’s perception of bands are different. What you were saying about Cosmonauts citing the same influences as us, they probably perceive the music differently than we do. That’s important to recognize. So there.

Was your music a reaction to the music that was being played around here, like one-too-many boring 3-chord punk bands?

Jigmae: I don’t have a problem with 3 chords.

Jeremy: We usually don’t change chords at all. We can’t really knock that.

Jigmae: If you pay attention, not to sound overbearing, but if you listen to a lot of the bands we admire and that other people might admire, they complained also during their time. There was no renaissance. Maybe there was a renaissance, but many bands are in a vast forest of shitty bands and shitty generic ideas. That might instigate it, but it’s more about trying to create something. What are we here for anyways? We’re idealists. There’s no nihilism here.

isn’t trying to duplicate your grandfather’s old R&B records any more than shoegazers today are cloning the riffs on your aunt’s Jesus and Mary Chain records. Waterhouse’s aggressively up-beat, soulful arrangements are grounded in the same fertile Southern California good vibes feel that infuses the music of other popular pop artists living in the Bay, including friends Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin. We caught up with Nick Waterhouse to talk about the new LP, eBay and pressing plants before he and his Tarots join the Allah-Las for a headlining show at Slim’s in San Francisco Wednesday night (ed: ).

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Tell us more about the new LP. Where did you record?
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It was recorded at McHugh’s Distillery in Costa Mesa, California.

The album was one of the wildest things I’ve done in my life. It was recorded in a bunch of trips down to Southern California, often in these manic 48-72 hour periods which were bookended by 8 hour drives and scheduled around shows with the Tarots. So it was like: Drive, Show, Sleep, Record, Show, Sleep, Record, Drive. There were times of total peak intensity and times of exhaustion, just crazy, rabbit-hole moments in this studio with no windows and you don’t know if it’s night or day. I discovered how difficult it is to get a large ensemble to all be ‘on’ for certain takes, especially when someone is tired. And because I cut as live as possible with everyone in the same room, it could get pretty intense. I can say that I really stand behind it for everything, though — it’s a record, which is supposed to be a record of a place and time. The Naturelles, The Tarots are all over it, and I’ve got Ty Segall on drums on two tracks, some members of the , and of course, Ira Raibon of The Fabulous Souls playing sax on a few tunes. It’s going to be out in March or April of 2012.

How did you and Ty connect?

Ty and I have known each other since we were growing up in Orange County together. Him and some of the Moonhearts and Trad Fools guys used to come see this band I was in at the time, and after I left for San Francisco his musical career really began with the Epsilons. When he came to San Francisco we played music together a few times. I just phoned him up and asked if he was available that particular weekend, knowing full well that he was a viciously talented drummer.

Your music is a refreshing counterpoint to a lot of what’s played in the Bay Area now. Do you think of yourself as a “local artist” or do you happen to just live here?

I feel like an anomaly, though I do feel right at home with DJs more than other bands. I have never really been at home anywhere, but San Francisco.. it has been where I managed to get the Tarots together. I don’t know what that means in the grand scheme. I never fit in anywhere, but also fit in just fine.

Not many people know that you operate your own (very successful) record label. What has been your biggest challenge so far?
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Yeah, . Besides learning everything by trial and error - it was probably when the hand letterpressed labels for the Allah-Las ‘Catamaran’ single were burned accidentally by the pressing plant, who had to bake them. It delayed the pressing by about two months to have them restamped and printed, then baked again and pressed. The price of doing things in a particular way. I don’t care. That single is so good.

Speaking of records, auctions of your 45 have . We keep one at the house in case we can’t make rent one month.
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I am really flattered to be auctioned off like a rare RnB tune by the same people I have watched on there, and the same people I know are major DJs. It’s surreal. I would love to see it get played at the nights some of these DJs run in Europe. The record is definitely made for dancers, so it’s profoundly satisfying to see guys I would want to DJ with going ape over trying to get a copy.
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It’s funny because I don’t know if my acquaintances and friends from San Francisco realize I can identify their ebay accounts. There are some whom I gave freebies to that have probably made more profit than I have on ‘Some Place’ at this point.

What does the future hold? Any news on an overseas tour?
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I’ll be producing the Allah-Las forthcoming debut LP, as well as a single for the Naturelles out on Pres. There’s a tour in the works up the coast in December, and then some European dates I’m working on for March. After that, a lot of US dates to support the album, which will be out in April.

Nick Waterhouse & The Tarots headline tonight at Slim’s supported by and label-mates the . Tickets, , are 9 in advance and 11 at the door - show starts at 8:30. Waterhouse’s 45rpm “” has been sold out for awhile now, so if you want a chance at grabbing that you’ll have to try eBay. Watch the black/white vid for the song “I Can Only Give You Everything“ below:

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

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Anything else?

Water Borders

Harbored Mantras

The affinity between NYC/London record label Tri Angle and is a curious one. Amitai Heller and Loric Sih of San Francisco duo Water Borders, do not employ the same rolling ambience of labelmates Balam Acab or How To Dress Well. Where as Holy Other and oOoOO (who also brandish the Tri Angle imprint) are descendents of hip hop and dub, Water Borders are born of the 80’s industrial scene, pulling from Coil, Popul Vuh and Psychic TV. Their soggy electronic debut also casts a staggering collection of worldbeats, sampled from the sound banks of the Middle East, India, Africa and Indonesia. In this way, Water Borders make a kind of infected dance. Their moon-shone throbbing, sub-percussive/percussive music is just as much for your body as it is for your ears.

It’s hard imagining Harbored Mantras taking place on stage or in a room. The Water Borders’ thick atmosphere is that of the damp air of a candle lit cave or an abandon church. They talk about snakes in the water, hollow bodies and night scenes. Embodying all the splendor of echo and texture, Heller and Loric’s backdrop for modern spell work is an understanding of the beauty of fragmentation and repetition. Heller’s shivering croon rides out the drown and pound of heavy toms, shakers and low digital blunted bass. His monk vox is clenched between the lilt of someone suffering and the hypnosis of someone seducing.

If you didn’t take the duo seriously you could call Water Borders heroin-hyphy, but rather they are careful forerunners of a new craft, stating that Harbored Mantras is, “a coalescence of digital and analog sounds and textures.” In the way of Throbbing Gristle, they place an emphasis on atmosphere rather than context, patiently drawing sonic circles for physical movement as well as contemplation. Listening to Harbored Mantras is seeing the moon come out in the afternoon. It’s smoking indoors. It’s holding your breath under water. It’s trying to figure out which flickering shadow is your own. Perhaps most importantly Harbored Mantras is proof of the further materialization of an innovative dark industrial music scene teeming in San Francisco. With bedfellows , , currently defibrillating things, Water Borders couldn’t have come up for air during a better time.

Charlotte Simons

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After releasing the eminently enjoyable Play it Strange LP back in 2010, ‘s famously prolific employees Tim Cohen and Shayde Sartin of brought their listeners to a lowered state with this year’s EP release Secret Walls back in April. Apart from contributions of two previously-unreleased tracks for the , the band recently released a new 7″ single via British DIY label SEXBEAT. ”I Would Not Know the Devil” was debuted shortly before the group left for a one-month long European tour. We caught up with Shayde for an update as the F&O wrap up their face-melting jaunt across the old continent.

[photo credit: Ruthie Swanson]

WHITE FENCE is the moniker of one Tim Presley, master multitasker and purveyor of a sinister brand of flower power music that hisses and pops with the joyful lopsidedness of a four-track recorder. When he is not recording as White Fence in his Echo Park bedroom, Presley tours with the Strange Boys and Darker My Love. He has also served a stint in The Fall and recorded on their record Reformation Post TLC, the influential English band’s 26th studio album. White Fence played Saturday at (teaser below, filmed by George Augusto) with Ty Segall, Audacity, and Crazy Band in preparation for their trip up to Big Sur this weekend to perform the second day of the immediately-sold out Woodsist Fest (Tim’s live band includes his brother, Sean Paul Presley of Nodzzz). Recently, Tim had a chance to wax philosophically with us about New York City, Black Flag and Highlights magazine.

Reading your views on how Los Angeles has informed your music, down to the random acts of violence, reminds me of an interview New York Magazine did with of the Liars where he discussed ways LA “disturbed” him. “It’s got to do with the idea that people are in their cars and they feel safe, and then the actual landscape that they’re traveling through is pretty much left untouched … there’s a massive stream of homeless people, and downtown is kind of their world.” How much of that aligns with your personal view?

I’m disturbed that he’s disturbed. Doesn’t he live in LA and fuck girls here? It’s a little cliche to talk about the plastic, Botox world of Los Angeles when it’s just as bad in New York. Everyone’s afraid to talk shit on New York, but I will. That place is just as fucking lame as anywhere else in the US. I was just in Brooklyn weeks ago and everyone looks the same. It’s one giant college campus of cool people. I even saw a old dusty very homeless lady with Vans chukka boots. It makes me want to dress like a priest, and then become one. At least in LA it’s so spread out that I don’t have to see such a high concentration. Los Angeles is such an easy scapegoat, so when white-Indie Rock people talk about it negatively, especially about the obvious things, I get defensive. Don’t get me wrong — I like Liars and appreciate what they do. I’m just venting on a bigger picture here. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and was raised to hate LA until a friend showed me a great and beautiful side with genuine, amazing people. Also there is so much here. It’s very big. We have helicopters.

You’ve been a big proponent of the burgeoning music movement in LA and White Fence is certainly on the forefront of that. What would you say are the biggest differences between the bands in San Francisco and the sounds of the Echo Park scene? You have a unique view, having been enmeshed in both worlds.

I don’t know if LA really has a “sound” now, but there are cool bands/artists that vary [across] the spectrum. SF is good. I can honestly say that I love bands from SF at this moment. But we need each other — the SF/LA [dynamic]. It’s like brothers. The back and forth. Good and bad. I dunno. I will say, because SF is geographically tighter it helps with that energy. Plus they know what the sun feels like. We don’t because we live on it.

What to you constitutes the perfect pop song?

“The Humpty Dance” (by the ). Totally off the topic, but what if you got sent to prison and on your second night your cellmate dosed you with hi-grade speed. Wouldn’t that be just awful?! Think about it.

One tour highlight that is most visible in your memory thus far?

Swimming in a lake in Pennsylvania with the Strange Boys on a hot day after a noble game of whiffle ball. Inside jokes are a highlight. Reading Highlights magazine in the dentist office is nice too. I usually enjoy Goofus and Gallant.

How rad is this year’s Woodsist lineup? Seems to be booked with some bands that are on the cusp of doing great things.

Yes, Jeremy Earl (Woods/Woodsist) is awesome for putting it on. He himself is doing great things. I am very happy to be a part of it.

Love,

Tim Presley

7-25-2011

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plays the second day of this year’s (sold out!) in support of a stacked lineup (including a sub-in from the Mantles, who were added to the bill in place of the recently-dissolved ) before heading south on a w/ Woods and Ducktails that ends at the Bowery Ballroom in New York 8/13. ”Is Growing Faith” can be picked up directly from Woodsist via mail-order and digitally from iTunes . White Fence’s 7″, released on the heels of “Growing” and entitled “Harness b/w The Pool”, can be purchased from (housed in the eponymously-named boutique store on 988 Valencia) or .

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After chugging through their set at San Francisco’s Verdi Club for the Milo Minute release show several weeks ago, a somewhat bleary-eyed Lillian Maring looked down from her drumset into the crowd and half-heartedly entreated the audience for a ride back to the East Bay. This was — lauded by The New Yorker, recruited by Kill Rock Stars, booked to open for the likes of Sonic Youth - coming home and willing to chum up to cruise across the Bay back home, a small but telling indicator of the band’s legendary DIY ethic. After an extensive European tour and months of recording and self-releasing the 7″ on their new label, , we found time to talk to Lillian, bassist Hannah Lew and guitarist Raven Mahon about pajama yuppies and stonercam.

Welcome back — any highlights from Europe?
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RM: We had a really good time. It was our first time to Europe (not considering three shows we played there last fall), so we kind of had an idea of what to expect, but I was really blown away by the hospitality. It’s amazing that Europe has this built-in infrastructure for providing touring bands with places to stay and home-cooked meals no matter what kind of band you are or what sort of show it is. We really lack that in the United States. Right after we got home we played a record release show for the 7″ we just put out and were really inspired by the Euro hospitality so we bought everyone burritos.

HL: We had dinner with Anna De Silva and her partner Shirley. It was amazing to meet her and talk “shop.” We got to play in some pretty amazing legalized squats in Europe. Many of the places we played had flats designated for the touring bands. There’s so little funding for the arts in the U.S. and in general touring as an American band you get used to traveling pretty roughly, so it was refreshing to tour in a hospitable place . I could have stayed longer!

You got along so well with touring buds/blind dates that you recorded a - are they any other bands you were introduced to out there that we should listen to?

RM: Yeah, definitely. There is another incarnation of Trash Kit and happening in London right now which is called . Also, Rachel, the drummer from Trash Kit has another project called . We played with a band in Vienna that we all really liked called . Two ladies — they were rad.

HL: We played with a great band called in Zurich as well. Also a band called in London. I really liked them!

Oaklanders Nectarine Pie just put out a video shot with a Super 8 with the help of label-head Rob Fales (read our interview with him here). When it comes to Grass Widow’s own videos, what’s the appeal of shooting with an older film camera? Is it purely aesthetic — or is there a subtext of conscious luddism, something you have talked about in past interviews?

HL: Shooting on Super 8 is the cheapest way to shoot with actual film. You can’t just turn on the camcorder and hit stonercam. Each cartridge is 3 minutes long and when you shoot you really have to plan. I have shot with Super 8 for a long time and I actually think in the color scheme of the film stock at this point. When they discontinued Kodachrome I thought I would just stop making films, but then Kodak made a new Ektachrome film stock with nice colors so I’m back in the saddle.
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This might be totally incriminating…but a big reason I initially got into shooting with Super 8 was because Kodak had this old deal with Cala Foods (a local grocery store that is now out of business) where you could drop rolls of Super 8 to get processed along with the 35mm still pictures in a slot in the grocery store. It cost $3.00 to process a roll there-which is really cheap!