"I just can't believe the people that I'm sharing the stage with tonight." -Patty Loveless
Want to celebrate musicians’ birthdays late at night from the comfort of your home but don’t know how? This weekend’s “Mountain Stage After Midnight” performances have got you covered. Broadcast from 1am-5am Saturday and Sunday mornings here on West Virginia Public Radio, “Mountain Stage After Midnight” takes the best performances from Mountain Stage’s 31 year history and shares them with our late night listeners. Each week, we’ll hand-pick two of our favorite episodes and they’ll alternate order each night.
Since bluegrass-country virtuoso Alison Kraus and eclectic rockabilly band NRBQ’s Alan “Al” Anderson celebrated birthdays this past week, expect to hear their music (among others) on the Saturday July 26 and Sunday July 27 editions of “Mountain Stage After Midnight.”
First, an episode from August 2001 featuring “The Queen of Mountain Soul” Patty Loveless, Canadian alt-folk band Crash Test Dummies, silky-voiced Americana artist Irene Kelley, and July birthday girl Alison Krauss.
Speaking of anniversaries, did you know that NRBQ celebrated Mountain Stage’s 100th show back in 1988?
Next, you’ll hear a 2003 episode featuring the likes of American blues guitarist Robert Cray, blues harmonica master Kim Wilson, Chicago blues singer-songwriter E.G. Kight, legendary pop producer and musician Don Dixon, and spontaneous rock group NRBQ (of which July birthday boy Al Alderson was the lead guitarist from 1974-1994).
Have a Mountain Stage performance in mind that you’d love to hear overnight weekends? Send us your recommendations over at the show’s Facebook and Twitter. While you’re at it, make sure to check out The Mountain Stage Podcast for even more reasons why Mountain Stage remains the home of live music on public radio.
Each week, “A Change of Tune” host Joni Deutsch will chat with up-and-coming artists and give Spotify-like music recommendations in a feature called “Recommended If You Like.” This week, Joni interviews Vancouver-based indie pop band Young Liars’ Jordan Raine (vocals, guitar) and Ty Badali (drums, percussion) about comic books, Madonna covers, and the band’s new record, Tidal Wave. If you’re a fan of Two Door Cinema Club, this band and interview are recommended for you.
Joni: As a bit of a comic book geek, I couldn’t wait to talk to you all about your band name. Is it true that you named yourselves after DC Comic’s Young Liars?
Jordan: That is true. Andrew [Beck, Young Liars’ bass player] actually read it and came up with the name. I actually haven’t read the comic book. I think it was before our first show, we were nameless and had been nameless for months. Coming up with a band name is hard, so when that one floated to the top, we thought, “Yeah! Young Liars! I can get with that,” without realizing forever that people would think it was because of the TV on the Radio album instead.
Joni: Looking at the comic book, there’s Nazi spiders in space and all kinds of crazy teenage shenanigans. It sounds like a crazy, interesting namesake.
Tyler: [Laughing] It’s supposed to be really good.
Jordan: Now you’re making me want to go read the comic so I could have more context for it.
Joni: Did the author of the comic book series ever acknowledge the band or reach out saying, “Hey, why did you steal my comic book?”
Tyler: [Laughing] No, but that would be cool.
Jordan: [Laughing] I don’t know if he even knows we exist. Maybe one day we’ll receive a cease and desist letter and we’ll have to move away.
J: What’s been the most exciting thing about releasing Tidal Wave and getting to tour?
J: For me, it’s been a long process to finish it and to finally have it out there for people to listen to. It’s been some kind of relief to be able to play these songs that we’ve been working on for so long. I guess my favorite part is that now we can go play these songs that we’ve been hiding for a year and a half out in public.
T: Yeah, that’s pretty much how I feel, too. I’m just glad it’s over. [Laughing] It was such a long process. And it’s nice being able to practice those songs in our rehearsals and have full songs to play. Having more than ten songs is kind of a new thing for us playing live, so we have something to choose from.
J: Do you guys have any favorites that you like to play live?
T: I think my favorite right now is “Lovely and Wild.” I really enjoy playing that song.
J: Yeah, me too. Either that one or “Blooming Hearts.” Those are both really, really good live.
J: We wanted to do something that was simple but wasn’t a narrative or just us sitting there playing like every music video from the 90’s where the band is just there in different movie camera angles. So we ended up working with a guy, Nathan Boey, out of Vancouver who thought we should do these tiny, little looping clips…
T: Like gifs.
J: Yeah, like these gif things that sort of tie together images and kind of relate to the lyrics and that are really kind of fun to look at. That’s what came out of it.
J: You’re totally right. It’s like 6-seconds of Vine-like storytelling that caters to our crazy bad attention spans.
J: It worked out, and I like it a lot actually. I like doing videos because so much of it is us giving a direction to the director, he takes it and carries it, and then we then get this cool representation that goes along with our music. It feels like we get this free, cool edition.
T: It makes you think about the song a lot differently.
Young Liars’ debut record, Tidal Wave.
J: Do you guys have any favorite cover songs that you’re doing on the road or maybe on your own time?
T: Covers have always been difficult for us. We’ve always shied away from playing them because we all want to choose one song to play and then we never perfect any of them. So we just play each once and then go back to playing our own songs.
J: I think the last one we did live was actually a Madonna song, and I don’t think we’ve recovered from it yet. “Hung Up,” I think?
T: Yeah, it scarred us for life. It was just quite a difficult song to cover, and we’re finally at a point now where all of our stage programming and live show are very tight. At that point, we were still trying to figure a lot things out.
J: Why Madonna though? Of all the artists, you chose Madonna and “Hung Up.” What made you think, “This is the one we should go cover.”
J: That’s a great question. I think it’s because we had so many ideas and that was the weird middle ground that we landed on.
T: Yeah, that was the one that everyone said yes to.
J: By the time we’re make it out there, we’ll have a proper cover that’s not Madonna that we can play for you guys.
J: Would you want to collaborate with Madonna then, or would you want to collaborate with a non-Madonna entity for the next record?
J: [Laughing] She wouldn’t be high on my list, no. There are others.
T: Little Dragon, maybe?
J: Aw man, that would be so fun. Hundred Waters would be so fun, too. It would be fun to get a female vocalist or female-fronted group and pairing the two together.
T: Grimes would be really cool since she’s from Vancouver.
J: How is the Vancouver music scene?
T: It’s good. There aren’t that many venues in the city, and I think there could be more. Pretty much everyone I know says the same thing. But there’s a lot of quality bands in the city. There’s just a lot of bands in general, and every jam space we go to is full. There’s a pretty good artist vibe out here.
J: Are there any up-and-coming artists from Vancouver that you want to give a shout-out to? Besides yourselves, of course.
J: Some of my favorite artists from Vancouver are The Belle Game, Aiden Knight, and We Are the City. There’s a lot of folks who I remember growing up with and seeing their early, early bands and going to their shows…
T: Like Supercasette and Oh No! Yoko and all those guys.
J: So it’s cool to see those bands mature and just release some really, really solid records.
J: Would you guys say that took more from Canada or outside countries/areas in terms of musical influences?
J: That’s an interesting question. I don’t think we necessarily fit into the Vancouver scene’s music genre. I think there’s a bit of more focus on folk and less on the electronic-kind of things that we’re interested in. So we all kind of grew up listening to a lot of electronic music and indie-type rock stuff, so we ended up looking through at a lot of UK bands and even some American bands.
J: When I was listening to Tidal Wave, I got the image of a Phoenix and Two Door Cinema Club music baby. Did either of those groups influence your music?
T: I don’t think so. I listened to a lot of Two Door Cinema Club when they first came out, and I’ve heard that comparison over and over and over about the band, but I seem to think it’s just Jordan’s voice maybe. I’ve had friends think it’s us on the radio when they hear a Two Door Cinema Club song, so maybe we do sound similar.
J: It’s not a bad comparison. The way Two Door Cinema Club tapped into an indie-electronica vibe was intriguing, and I like how you both are able to create infectious songs that are mix of highbeat and lowbeat.
T: Yeah, we really like The Cult and New Order, stuff like that. They’re songs aren’t all upbeat, but this album, for some reason, went strangely downbeat. A lot of the stuff ended up quite slow. We managed to get a lot of poppy stuff in there, and there’s quite a few driving songs. It’s a weird mix, this album.
J: With my saying Tidal Wave is an indie-electronica album, do you think that’s a fair description of your music?
J: I think it’s fair and good. We never come at it like a genre that we’re trying to get into, but I think that’s where we kind of ended up. Although I do like to watch what other people call it, and we’ve had some fantastic ones for this album. I think one was dream pop and another was psychedelic dance folk. These are wonderful mash-up genres that I don’t hear myself…
T: But we encourage it!
J: Do you guys have anything that you want to bring up about your record or your tour that people should know about you?
T: We’re going to be starting to tour. We’ve got a few dates for the summer, and we so we should be playing quite a few tours in the fall and spring. So if people want us to come play, we’d be happy to come.
J: And if they can let us know what their state food is, that would help.
Young_Liars_70814_wvpublic_segment_two.mp3
Joni talks with Young Liars about Canadian and American foods.
Young Liars just finished the summer tour for their debut album, Tidal Wave, and will soon hit the road again in September for a fall tour. You can follow their musical hijinks on http://youngliars.ca/. To get a sneak peak of their record, tune in to Joni Deutsch’s “A Change of Tune” this Saturday at 10 PM EST on West Virginia Public Radio.
"Mountain Stage is one of the greatest musical crossroads of our time. It's a national treasure." -Daniel Lanois
Need the perfect soundtrack for your late nites/early mornings? Why not tune your radio dials to “Mountain Stage After Midnight,” broadcast from 1am-5am Saturday and Sunday mornings here on West Virginia Public Radio. It’s but one of the many lovely programs on our improved radio schedule, and it’s because of your listenership that we’re able to dig into the music archives to hear the best from Mountain Stage’s 31 year history. Each week, we’ll choose two of our favorite Mountain Stage performances and alternate their order each night.
Expect to get your indie/alternative boogie on for the Saturday July 19 and Sunday July 20 editions of “Mountain Stage After Midnight.”
First, an episode from November 2010 featuring indie pop-folk lovebirds The Weepies, acoustic “super group” Punch Brothers, pop bluegrass group The Infamous Stringdusters, and alt-folk band Trampled by Turtles. In terms of very recent music news, Trampled by Turtles released their seventh studio record, Wild Animals, this past week See the playlist here.
Credit Brian Blauser / Mountain Stage
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This November 2010 performance was mega-producer/Black Dub founder Daniel Lanois’ fourth appearance on Mountain Stage.
Next, you’ll hear an episode featuring the likes of artrock collective Black Dub, indie rock group Delta Spirit, Brooklyn-by-way-0f-Vermont singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, ukelele-strumming starlet Danielle At the Sandwich, and chamber folkers Horse Feathers. In terms of future music news, Delta Spirit will have a new record out this September called “Into the Wide.” Check out the playlist here.
Do you have a Mountain Stage performance in mind that you’d love to hear overnight weekends? Send us your recommendations over at the show’s Facebook and Twitter.
Each week, “A Change of Tune” host Joni Deutsch will have one-on-one conversations with emerging talents and give Spotify-like music recommendations in a feature called “Recommended If You Like.” This week, Joni interviews Australia indie folk band Boy & Bear’s Jon Hart (vocals, mandolin, keyboard) about Americana music, the official “Twilight” movie soundtrack, and the band’s new record, “Harlequin Dream.” If you like Mumford & Sons, this band and interview are recommended for you.
Joni: Congrats on everything that’s happened with the band so far. It sounds like you guys are having an awesome year. How’s the U.S. tour going so far?
Jon: It’s been really great. It’s sort of a mix of festival shows and club shows, so every night we’re playing a different style set list. That’s fun because it keeps it from feeling the same with different sets of crowds. We’re going to places we haven’t been before, not that we’ve been to that many places in America, but the whole “new thing” keeps things feeling fresh for us. I wouldn’t say it’s like a holiday at all, but it has that element of excitement of going to places you’ve heard about and never been, so it’s pretty cool.
Joni: Have you guys been to West Virginia before?
Jon: We have not been to West Virginia. But we do this quiz on the weekends in one of the newspapers at home and one of the questions was, “How many states in America have a cardinal direction in them?” We did know that West Virginia made up the five, along with the Carolinas and the Dakotas. We’ve heard of West Virginia, but we’ve only been through Virginia.
J: That’s close! It’s like Virginia but more “West.” But if you guys are a fan of food, West Virginia is known for pepperoni rolls.
J: Oh wow, no we haven’t.
J: It’s like a calzone but better. If you drive down from Cleveland tonight, you’re welcome to come down to West Virginia and try them.
J: Unfortunately we’re in Buffalo tomorrow, well not unfortunately for Buffalo but unfortunately for late night pepperoni rolls. But that’d be great for the next tour.
J: Beyond that, it sounds like the tour’s been wonderful. Have you had any crazy fan experiences or behind-the-scenes shenanigans?
J: We’re not the most shenanigan-y kind of band. We always feel sort of bad that we have no real great stories for people. We’re just excited that we have a tour bus for the first time over here. I think we’ve been a bit too enthusiastic in inviting people back to have drinks on the bus, so that’s been nice. We have noticed people in America, maybe more so than say Australia or in the UK where we’ve done more touring, people can just tell you’re a band by looking at you. People in Australia don’t necessarily approach us on the streets, but people here don’t necessarily know who we are but they’ll ask “Are you in a band? Are you playing around here?” and get to chatting with us, and that’s really nice.
J: I think nowadays, there’s a sort of recognition in how you walk or act. And also, having an Australian accent in the States, it probably means you’re a celebrity or rock star.
J: [Laughing] Yeah, it tends to draw attention more than we hope sometimes.
J: Do you guys have any notable hits on your personal playlists?
J: We’ve been checking out Beck’s latest record and War on Drugs. We’re really into Kurt Vile’s last couple of albums. I can probably generalize here and say we don’t listen to as much new stuff as people at shows that are always talking about the coolest, latest thing. We’re not necessarily down with that; we probably listen to the older stuff a little bit more and not spend too much time worrying about who’s doing the latest, greatest thing and just find something the works for us in terms of classic influences.
J: I noticed you guys helped cover a Finn Brothers record a couple years back. If you guys cover any songs, do you try to cover newer hits, older songs, or none at all?
J: It’s a mix of different things. When we started out, we were doing a Bon Iver cover, who was a new guy that we liked, because we had an EP with 5 songs out at the time, and we were doing support stops that wanted us to play for half-an-hour, so we had to play another song and put the cover in our set. We also had a Finn Brothers song that went into our set for a while. Now we’ve been playing something older like a Chris Isaak song, “Wicked Game.” It hasn’t quite made it into the set regularly, but it’s there and it’s a bit of fun to bust it out and do something different every now and then. We like to try to put a spin on something classic and really well known.
J: So you know how certain bands and artists have names for their fans, like Justin Bieber’s “Beliebers” and One Direction’s “Directioners.” I was thinking, do you guys have a name for your fans?
J: [Laughing] No. I’ve actually never heard of “Beliebers” before. That’s hilarious.
J: Oh yeah. That’s a big trend nowadays. But here’s my suggestion for you all: what about “Boy-sen-Bear-ries?”
J: “Boy-sen-Bear-ries.” [Laughing] I see where you’re going with that. Maybe we’ll pop something online and see if it trends.
J: Thanks for appeasing me with that. Moving on to your record, tell me a bit about the cover of “Harlequin Dream.” Were you trying to go for something like Jurassic Park meets the Spanish American War at the fair?
J: We wanted something that looked classic, like album covers used to be when you could actually look at them like they were artwork. In terms of the way the music was feeling with the record, I guess we did get this slightly dark carnival vibe to it. When we were trying to work out what to name the album, there were references to movies like “Cowboys and Indians” with a twist, and suddenly that turned into the direction of the artwork. We wanted it to have depth, we wanted it to be something where you could go, “I never saw that last time,” and you keep seeing new things and can almost invent your own story from looking at the record cover. So I think that’s what we were going for, and we’re stoked with it.
J: I was definitely piecing together all the little bits when I saw the cover. It’s beautiful, artistic, crazy, and cool, just like your music videos.
J: [Laughing] Yeah. They’re always a funny thing, music videos, because you’re putting yourself in the hands of the person that’s doing it. They’re probably thinking you want something like you’ve done before, but at the same time you don’t want to repeat yourself, but then they don’t want to do something that you don’t want. It’s always a funny dance between a new, unique vision and something that makes sense with the music we’re doing.
J: What was the inspiration for the “Southern Sun” music video? It looked like you were shooting in Canada in below-zero weather.
J: It was freezing. We were in New Zealand, which is like our version of Canada where it snows and everyone’s skiing. It was probably one of those once in a lifetime opportunities where we were playing on top of a snow-capped mountain in a ridiculous “Spinal Tap” kind of way. And it was freezing and unbelievably cold, you were right. The director had this vision of a story leading to us playing with the sun behind us. Now there’s irony to it, and I’ll give you a tip: go back and give it another watch. If you have another look at the end, what’s meant to happen is the sun’s meant to be behind us and it’s meant to be epic and blinding with lens flares, but what happened is the dude who was directing it kind of got the scheduling a bit wrong. So we’re standing there on the mountain with the gear set up, and he’s off doing something else, and we’re watching the sun go down against the horizon and we’re thinking, “We’re actually going to lose the sun.” So the whole “Southern Sun” idea ended up with them shooting the sun going down anyways, and it ended up looking a bit dirty and cool. It was meant to be epic and it ended up being a bit different, and I think I kind of like the results now.
J: I never would have known that, but I guess you’re right that it’s a different kind of epic rather than the intended epic, which perhaps makes it even more epic. Speaking of epic,do you guys have any epic producers or future collaborations in mind?
J: That’s a good question. Producing is always a funny thing, and we’re talking about that right now for our next record. I think to work with Paul Simon would be pretty amazing, and I think Dave would love to work with James Taylor, going back to our classic influences. I think everyone in the band, without fail, has a soft spot for Neil Young. Another classic would be Bruce Springsteen and doing something with him because he’s a dude who’s been doing it forever.
J: Your music has been featured in the American television show 90210. Are there any other shows or movies that you’d be interested in contributing your music to?
J: You know we haven’t really thought about it. Whenever we get approached, we usually go on with it. As much as it is cool if it happens, it’s not a direct ambition for us to get on TV. We had a song on the shortlist for the Twilight movie in 2012. It was a track that didn’t make it to our first album, and the record label asked if we’d submit it. They really liked it but eventually went with something else.
J: The most important question: why is it Boy & Bear and not Man & Sloth or Teenager & Koala?
J: I think there must have been a lot of animal/bear themes going around at the time, and we were struggling to find a name. We put a shortlist of together of things, chopped them together, tried different things, and it just came out that way. There was no real meaning behind it so much as we just liked the animal/bear idea. People get a bit disappointed, particularly fans, when they want us to have a story about how the name has something more attached to it, but it’s a name and it works. Every now and then I think it sounds kind of silly, but it’s our name and we’ve grown into it.
Boy & Bear are currently finishing their summer tour for their sophomore album, “Harlequin Dream,” and will soon hit the road again for a fall tour. You can follow their musical hijinks on http://www.boyandbear.com. To get a sneak peak of their record, tune in to Joni Deutsch’s “A Change of Tune” this Saturday at 10 PM EST on West Virginia Public Radio.
In the mood for some great late night jams? Look no further than this weekend’s pair of “Mountain Stage After Midnight” performances, broadcast from 1am-5am Saturday and Sunday mornings here on West Virginia Public Radio. It’s all part of the improved radio schedule that we know you’ll appreciate, and we’re excited to be sharing the best memories from Mountain Stage’s 31 year history with our late night listeners. Each week, we’ll hand-pick two of our favorite episodes and they’ll alternate order each night.
Here’s what is in store for you Saturday July 12 and Sunday July 13 on “Mountain Stage After Midnight.”
First, an episode from October 2000 featuring Irish folk supergroup Solas, American banjo player Alison Brown, Canadian folk band The Paper Boys, singer-songwriter Ryan Adams, and rootsy group Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. We taped this show in “the other Charleston” (in South Carolina).
Next, you’ll hear an episode featuring the late/great Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, American folk/blues artist Chris Smither, blues singer Tracy Nelson, Canadian guitarist Sue Foley, and California singer Chuck Prophet.
Credit Brian Blauser / Mountain Stage
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Sue Foley and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown performing on Mountain Stage in 2000.
Do you have a Mountain Stage performance in mind that you’d love to hear overnight weekends? Give us your recommendations on the show’s Facebook and Twitter.
Every week, “A Change of Tune” host Joni Deutsch will have one-on-one conversations with emerging talents and give Spotify-like music recommendations in a new feature called “Recommended If You Like.” This week we’ll hear from Vancouver-based band The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer’s Shawn Hull (aka “The Harpoonist”) about the state of the music industry, fan experiences, and the band’s new record, “A Real Fine Mess.” If you like The Black Keys, this band and interview are recommended for you.
Joni: Congrats on the new record and also on your first U.S. tour!
Shawn: Thank you! Yeah, it was a tough one. We had six states, and we ended up doing the places that most bands probably wouldn’t play for their first tour. We found out that Kansas has absolutely butt-kicking storms, and Matt [Rogers, aka “The Axe Murderer] looked like he was in a Vidal Sassoon commercial in a wind tunnel during the show. But people didn’t flinch! They thought we were kitty cats. I guess that’s how they roll in Kansas.
J: Tell me more about 2014 for you all. What’s been the most exciting thing, aside from the first U.S. tour and your newest record, “A Real Fine Mess?”
S: We were really honored to play at the Continental Club in Austin, Texas, during South by Southwest. That was incredible, and we got to play right up there with heavy hitters like Luther Dickinson from the North Mississippi Allstars, Rich Robinson from the Black Crowes, and one of The Neville Brothers’ children. And going to New York City was cool. We played in the smallest club we have ever played in our lives.
J: Was it the size of a closet or something?
S: It was ridiculous. Only New Yorkers would get away with this stuff and then say, “What? What are you complaining about? This is New York. This is how it is.” It probably held 20 to 24 people, and when you finished playing, the next band came in and you had to get out onto the street to pack up your gear, even if it was raining. At first I thought, “I can’t believe we flew across the continent to play in the smallest place ever,” but the experience was incredibly intimate.
J: So what do you think makes your music Canadian, if anything?
S: Watching similar bands doing swampy funk rhythm and blues in the States, we feel like being Canadian gives us a perspective where we’re not in that melting pot. We’re able to pick and choice a little bit differently because we’re not born into the same demographics and don’t have to be cookie-cuttered into genres. Since we’re not born in Chicago or raised in a strict, conservative culture of Chicago blues, we don’t have to completely immerse ourselves in one particular thing just because that was what we were born into.
J: Tell me a little bit about the cover art for “A Real Fine Mess.” From what I saw, it was a PSA about the dangers of drinking and tightrope walking over the ocean.
S: That could work. I actually think it looks a little Monty Python-esque to show the bizarre contrast of this glamorous, almost circus type-like life against normal day-to-day functions. For us, it’s a balance between the type of life and energy attached to our wild, rock and roll world and the straight reality of having a mortgage and being a parent. I’m not sure if the kid and mortgage are meant to be the shark and octopus, but it’s that kind of dichotomous life that we’re trying to project.
J: So is there a certain message or theme attached to “A Real Fine Mess?”
S: [Laughing] You won’t find any parenting themes on the record. There’s no great heartache, but there are themes of relationships thinning out, longing for the past, and looking back at those lustful romantic days and ignition starters at the beginning of relationships. It’s not like a particularly themed record where we’re going down and exploring the 1955 crisis in Cuba… even though I don’t think there was a crisis in ’55.
J: In my mind, your record was similar to The Black Keys’ style, but you went all out with a kind of “blues that gets you in the crotch,” as one reviewer put it.
S: [Laughing] That came from a journalist in the Yukon from a couple years ago. People are obviously going to draw parallels to bands like The Black Keys because they’re doing blues-esque rock, but when you look at our songwriting and melodic approach, it’s just so different from that style of band and those instruments. It’s a great parallel to make because it’s a nice to have a point of reference to bands like that.
J: What would be a dream collaboration for you all?
S: You know what would be a great collaboration because we haven’t seen it yet? Questlove. Danger Mouse’s sound is all over the last decade of music, and he’s been doing his thing and doing it incredibly well. But if we want to bring our music into a new rhythmic realm, someone like Questlove would be a huge addition.
J: So outside of your own music, what are you listening to right now?
S: Straight up, we’re listening to The Greyhounds, an indie soul blues band by J.J. Grey. Austin-based singer-songwriter Hayes Carll is on the playlist. We’re really digging Dr. Dog right now. Royal Canoe, which is almost like Canada’s version of Frank Ocean, is on the list, so are Sam Cooke and obscure Robert Palmer from the ‘70s.
J: On another note, I really like the band’s name, and I love how The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer’s acronym is “HAM.” You could develop meat-based products to give out at shows.
S: And if we ever develop a “Deadhead” fanbase, I guess they would be HAM-sters? [Laughing] You would be the first to put that down. I don’t think it’s up to bands to decide fanbase names, so you would need to make it up for us.
J: That is an absolutely brilliant exclusive. Thanks! So what’s next for you all?
S: We are going to Disneyland! No, but we do have a music video that is being made by Matt’s brother [Ben Rogers] for our new single, “Don’t Make’em Like They Used To,” and he’s going to put together an incredible story of a world that used to be. It might be stop-motion animation, and that’s going to be one of the neater, creative things to come out of the band. We’re a very family-based operation, and Matt’s brother does all of the band’s illustrations and has helped pen a few of the band’s songs, including “Don’t Make’em Like They Used To.”
The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer are currently finishing their summer tour for “A Real Fine Mess.” You can follow their musical hijinks on http://www.harpoonistaxemurderer.com. To get a sneak peak of their record, tune in to Joni Deutsch’s “A Change of Tune” this Saturday at 10 PM EST on West Virginia Public Radio.
