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Taken from Connected magazine, April 2006

Latecomers to the “Baggydelic” scene of the early ’90s, The Charlatans seemed doomed to be remembered as Madchester also-rans. However, having endured imprisonment, death, embezzlement, and illness, the band have survived every rock’n'roll cliché in the book to earn a name for themselves as comeback kings. Released on the 17th of April, “Simpatico” is their 10th studio album, and while it’s in keeping with their constantly adapting musical direction, its dub-centric feel has already been raising many an eyebrow. I caught up with frontman Tim Burgess over a pint of Guinness to talk about Curtis Mayfield, white reggae, and David Lynch.

You recorded the new songs live in the studio – what did that bring to the album, and what was it like for the band to be living together again?
Well I think that the songs were written in that sort of way – very organically – and so to do them live just felt like a natural thing to do. In terms of living together and being together as a unit, it felt like a good thing. I wanted to feel like we’re a band.

I know that when you were making “Us and Us Only” you were listening to a lot of Bob Dylan, and during “Wonderland” you were listening to Curtis Mayfield…
Well no, I pretended to be Curtis Mayfield (laughs). I felt like him, I felt like I got in the spirit of him. He’s an amazing man. When I was in England, “Superfly” was the only record I really knew by him. But when I went to America, I got all these Impressions records and then realised that he did quite a few art film soundtracks – he had quite a long career span, you know? So I started to learn a lot more about Curtis, and then I ended up liking every record he did better than “Superfly”!

…but was there anything in particular you were listening to while making “Simpatico”?
I was listening to “Sandinista!” by the Clash a lot, and quite a lot of the Trojan back-catalogue, which Sanctuary bought. You see, part of the deal when we signed with them was that we got every single record that was made under them. So I think there may be a Trojan influence in there, possibly…A lot of Gram Parsons, a lot of Bob Marley.

It seems with every Charlatans album there’s a new shift in sound. Are you consciously trying to keep things fresh? Or does that just happen without you even realising it?
“Well it’s good to keep things fresh, but at the same time, I find that I naturally change directions quite a lot (giggles)…only because it’s just a part of learning and going through phases. Fortunately, in between records there’s normally a two-year gap, so you get turned on to stuff and it digests, rather than just thinking “oh I’m goin’ to do that this week, or this next week,” you know? You actually get a chance to digest. Whether it’s cool or not…obviously The Charlatans have gone through cool phases and not-so-cool phases, but I just like to absorb cultures of the world.

Would ripping yourself off ever become an issue?
Em…I’d like to!…and charge ourselves for it (laughs). But no, I’ve always – and I know this sounds really corny – considered myself a searcher.

There is a bit of a stigma attached to white reggae and ska – how do you feel about that?
It’s very important for us to be able to do it in the best “white” way. The few bands that I’ve heard who do reggae and are white were Japan – with a song called “…Rhodesia,” which I think is one of the greatest white reggae records ever – and The Clash.

…well and The Specials, in a ska sense anyway…
But they were more of a multi-cultural melting-pot of a band. Actually I was very fortunate to meet both Joe Strummer and Terry Hall, who are heroes of mine. So maybe I’m just tryin’ to copy them, I don’t know…

Living in the States and having done the solo album, what’s it like to return to the band for the whole process of recording, promoting, and touring?
All good. As long as people get to hear the record, I don’t care! (laughs).

Sitting down to do 50 interviews in a row, I’d say that can be a bit of a surreal experience. Do you even remember any of it?
I do remember certain common threads, questions that are asked. I try not to repeat myself, but I don’t want to tell lies either. So I try to say the same story in a kind of (well, hopefully) new and elaborating way!

Let’s talk a little bit about David Lynch. I know you’re quite a fan, as I am I myself.
Really? He’s got a new one, “INLAND EMPIRE.”

Yeah, I can’t wait to see it.
…I can’t either. It’s amazing, when he was asked what it was about, he said: “It’s about a girl in trouble” – all of his films are about a girl in trouble!

Apparently he didn’t have a script when he was shooting…
Yeah and he says he’s never going back to film, but he’ll change though…in ten years time maybe (laughs).

This may be a bit of a difficult question, but how do you think one could make the album equivalent of a David Lynch film?
I think we have with “Wonderland” and this album also. I gave the perfect David Lynch answer when someone asked: “how is this album different from the rest of your records?” And I said: “well it’s ‘Wonderland’, but in the rain.” It’s fairly Lynch-esque. I mean I don’t know…he definitely does his own thing, and so do I. I love “Twin Peaks”; I’ve even been on lynchnet.com to get the deleted scenes released.

Yeah, there are hours and hours of footage out there somewhere…
I know! But I want to see it – do you know what I mean? It might take me a while to understand it but…

Ah, they have to bring it out. I recently showed my friends the series and they think it’s the best thing that’s ever been on T.V.
Really? Well it was the best thing ever on T.V. Now when you look back it on DVD, it kind of runs a bit cloudy in some episodes. But people were crazy not to put “Mulholland Drive” on as a T.V. series…

Well I’m kind of glad he made it into a movie, at the same time…
Check this out for a Lynchism: we just did some music for a Naomi Watts advert. It’s “You’re So Pretty” from “Wonderland,” and it’s her looking like she did in “Mulholland Drive,” floating about for three minutes. I’d show it to you, only my computer’s broken…

How’s the DJing going?
Well I’m actually playing tonight in Whelans…

What kind of stuff are you playing?
Whatever’s in my bag, really (laughs).

A bit of everything?
“Bank Robber” by The Clash, always. Things like “Disco Infiltrator” by LCD Soundsystem…The Rolling Stones (breaking out in a cheeky grin).

You’re coming back for Oxegen in the summer, anyway…are you looking forward to the festivals?
It’ll be good if we play at night, that’s the only thing I ever worry about. In the daytime, it’s like you have no mood there. One of the big things about the record – and The Charlatans in general – is the feeling…just like a David Lynch film. It’s the mood.

Copyright © 2006 – Connected

Popularity: 2% [?]

I’m completely and unashamedly hooked. In fact, I can’t recall ever being as excited about a new band as I am about Philadelphia’s Dr. Dog. Purveyors of cascading melodies and irresistible harmonies, these guys have been doing their thing for years on beat-up cassette recordings, yet somehow the results still remain immaculate. Meeting the band ahead of their Dublin debut in the Village, I asked them whether the lo-fi element has a strange way of adding something extra to a recording. “I would go along with that, most definitely,” replies lead-guitarist and co-vocalist Scott McMicken. “It displays a person in a certain context that’s more easily relatable than someone producing this shimmering, huge sound. It’s not so much about the hiss; it’s just about ‘here’s a guy who’s comfortable working with very limited means.’ It shows an aspect of a person’s personality more than anything else.” Running a gauntlet of genres from rock and blues to doo-wop and soul, by harking back to a more vintage brand of sound, Dr. Dog have managed to draw more than a few comparisons to the Beatles and the Beach Boys. Rather than dismiss it as lazy labelling, however, the band are surprisingly open to any interpretation of their music: “There’s no doubt that those elements that they liken with us are my own personal taste,” McMicken considers. “I love what vocal harmonies can do to a melody and the way a good, tight rhythm section works. You kind of look at it like the drum and bass will carry the foundation of the song and then we tend to put splashes of guitars and keys in there like embellishments. But on top of that we need a really great vocal performance, so what backing vocals do is they add this feel. I mean when you’re hearing a human being going “ooooooooooh,” it just has a soul to it, so that sits all the way on top. To me, that’s the type of music that I love; that’s what I need to hear.”

“I don’t feel like we’re trying to emulate other bands,” says Toby Leaman, bassist and lead singer. “We just think about the songs. We’re not trying to rely on little tricks or anything like that; the only thing you have to come back to is the song itself – it just has to fit.” “We’ve got shit that totally disregards that pop template and stuff that indulges in it too,” adds McMicken, “so fundamentally we’re a band that tries to keep everything as open as possible.”

While Dr. Dog have been championed by the likes of M. Ward and heralded as “the best fuckin’ band in the world” by Jim James, if it wasn’t for a chance encounter with the My Morning Jacket frontman, the widely adored “Easybeat” might be something we’d have to do without. Leaman seems only too aware of this when asked how many great bands could be out there trawling the depths of anonymity: “Billions! Probably the best bands in the world, nobody knows about. I could think of ten off the top of my head.”

“I think after so much awful music has dominated the globe for a decade now,” says McMicken, “people are starting to get back to what makes really good music. I don’t think that’s a controversial statement, because you just see so many good bands sprouting up every day. Tonight I’ll inevitably end up talking to someone here and I’ll ask ‘are there a lot of good bands around Dublin?’ Every time I do that, people are like: ‘yeah! There are four of five bands you need to check out.’”

Only two dates into their European tour and the feedback from their own audiences has come as a pleasant surprise: “I couldn’t believe how energetic and pumped up the crowd was last night in Belfast,” says McMicken. “It’s the kind of thing we rarely see in the States. But then after the show so many people came up and said: ‘yeah, we’re sorry everyone was so tired and nobody was dancing,’ so I thought: ‘you’re apologising for this?’ I was honestly shocked by it. I didn’t think many of them would have even heard of us, but it was overwhelming. I mean after the show, there’d be three or four people trying to talk to you and buy you a beer at the same time – it was insane!” Informed that plenty Dr. Dog fans in Dublin were denied the chance to see them after they were added to the bill of an already sold-out show, the band simultaneously erupt: “Jesus! Shit! …Bring ‘em round to the backdoor!”

Nevertheless, in the aftermath of a gig still rattling around the bloodstream, you need only overhear a fan citing the band as the cause of his speeding tickets to realise that returning for the summer festivals is something justifiably high on the group’s agenda. With their hands expertly wrapped around a long enduring, golden sensibility of sound, Dr. Dog seem to be on course for a future as bright as the sun-kissed sounds they create.

Copyright © 2006 – Connected

Popularity: 2% [?]

A 24-track postcard of what I’ve been listening to over the last few months.

1. Ambulance LTD – Yoga Means Union
2. Ambulance LTD – Primitive (The Way I Treat You)
3. Brian Jonestown Massacre – Not If You Were The Last Dandy On Earth
4. DeVotchka – The Enemy Guns
5. Tapes ‘n’ Tapes – Just Drums
6. Ryan Adams – I See Monsters
7. Shugo Tokumaru – The Mop
8. Lee Dorsey – Working In the Coalmine
9. The Grates – Trampoline
10. Os Mutantes – A Minha Menina (edit – 2:23)
11. Os Mutantes – Bat Macumba (edit – 1:11)
12. Feist – Mushaboom
13. Tapes ‘n’ Tapes – Manitoba
14. The M’s – Trucker Speed
15. The Spinto Band – Oh Mandy
16. Paul Duncan – Tired and Beholden
17. Espers – Meadow
18. Cornelius – Tone Twilight Zone
19. Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins – Happy (edit 2:43)
20. John Parish – Shrunken Man
21. Jaymay – The One I Love (Live) [mp3 available @ myspace.com/jaymay]
22. Jana Hunter – Farm, CA
23. Madeline Peyroux – Between the Bars
24. Carter Tanton – I Will Tell (snippet 0:15)

Popularity: 5% [?]