The Pistola Press

What To Do On Sunday?

Deadmau5

• Melt Banana, Satanized, Jekylnhyde at the First Unitarian Church – 8 PM – $12
• Deadmau5, Burns at the TLA – 8 PM
• The Lizards From Mars Trio, A’s Rage, BM Linx, Qi Command at The Khyber – 8 PM

Brett Dennen will play The Trocadero Theatre tonight with Grace Potter & the Nocturnals. He’s been working non-stop all year and shows no sign of letting up.  I had the opportunity to catch up with Brett earlier on this week for a quick interview. He’s a really nice guy who does a lot for others and the community. More people should take inspiration from him and help out others in need. Interview below.

Colin: So what have you been up to this year? I know were on a headlining tour and you made a few stops at festivals. I actually saw you at Bonnaroo.

Brett: Oh, great! I’ve been touring a bunch, I’ve been touring pretty much straight since the album came out last year. Did a couple tours in the US, both headlining and opening for OAR, a bunch of festivals, been touring in Europe this year. I’m touring straight until the end of the year and at the top of the year I go back to Australia then another tour in Europe. In between those two tours, I’ll be making another album to release next summer.

Colin: Damn, you’re keeping yourself busy and working hard. Non-stop. Does that ever get draining?

Brett: It does. It’s really tiring. It takes a lot out of you. You expose yourself to a lot of different germs and sicknesses that can be really taxing on your body. You also know that doing what you love, you know? It makes it easier. I think anybody would give up if it wasn’t something they loved to do but I absolutely love doing it.

Colin: Definitely. I know you are involved with a bunch of different organizations that help out different communities and stuff like that. Have you done any work with that lately?

Brett: Yeah, I mean we do what we can. In some cities we bring out non-profit organizations to partner with. I’m involved with the Mosaic Project which is a non-profit organization that I started with a couple of people about seven years ago. I keep myself pretty busy with that and music and other things.

Colin: Very cool. You’ve been touring so much, have you had any highlights?

Brett: Yeah, we’ve played some really big shows. We’ve played some incredible festivals. I had a lot of fun on this last tour that we did in Europe. Just playing to crowds I’ve never played to before and meeting people and seeing beautiful cities. To me, it’s all great, whether I’m playing some town I’ve been to a million times or some place I’ve never been before. You know, I sing the songs every night but I learn something new about them every night. It just gets better and better.

Colin: So if you weren’t playing music for a living, what would you be doing instead?

Brett: I probably would be doing something that involves community work. Something hopefully in education. Working with children and community. Maybe not a school teacher but in something more community oriented, community driven.

Colin: When you were growing up did always have a strong sense of community or helping out others?

Brett: Yeah. I mean it’s just the way we were raised. My parents pretty good at teaching us that early on. That that’s important, you know? The work you do, it’s not just for yourself but for others.

Colin: On your tour right now, who’s going to be opening for you in Philadelphia?

Brett: Well, in Philly, we’re doing a co-headline with Grace Potter. The opener is Robert Francis. He’s this guy in LA or he’s based out of LA who has an incredible voice and he’s kind of straight ahead 70s anthemic rock. He’s pretty cool.

Colin: Awesome. Have you played in Philly before?

Brett: Yeah, I played the TLA and other venues. I’ve played all of them. The World Café…

Colin: What do you think of the city?

Brett: I love Philadelphia. I think Philadelphia is a great east coast city that’s maybe not as crazy as New York but people still like to have fun. There’s a lot of great singer/songwriters who’ve come out of there. I have a friend named Amos Lee who is one of my favorite singes/songwriters out there and he’s based there. I think it’s a good city for music.

Colin: I agree. Earlier on you said that you were working on a new album for next summer. Have started writing and planning for that? Or is it just in the early stages?

Brett: The songs are already written and feel like they’re pretty much done in terms of writing and arranging. Now it’s time to just record them. I’m looking into studios. Hopefully it will be a studio somewhere far away from where I live, where me and the band can go live there for a couple weeks and camp out in the studio and work late into the evening, Wake up there, work some more, drink wine and just have it kind of be a retreat.

Colin: Is that how you normally record your albums?

Brett: No. Normally I make records in LA, use players from LA and everybody just comes to the studio, spend all day there and everybody goes home at night. Then come back the next day. This time I want it to be more of like a everybody lives together and works together and that’s all we think about is the record for two weeks.

What To Do On Saturday?

Grace Potter & the Nocturnals

• A Special Family Show with They Might Be Giants at TLA – 3:30 PM – $25
• Tim Hecker, Aidan Baker at Kung Fu Necktie – 7:30 PM(21+) – $12
• Brett Dennen, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals at Trocadero Theatre – 8 PM – $24

What To Do On Friday?

Cave In

• Cave In, Narrow, Trap Them at the First Unitarian Church – 8 PM – $12
• Joshua Radin, The Watson Twins, The Kin at The Trocadero Theatre – 7 PM – $15
• Ani DiFranco, Gaby Moreno at the Electric Factory – 8:30 PM – $34
• Steely Dan at the Tower Theatre – 8 PM
• Hoots and the Hellmouth at Johnny Brendas – 9 PM – SOLD OUT
• Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, The Groovement at the M Room – 9 PM(21+) – $10
• The Static Jacks at The Fire – 8 PM

Check out the video for “Cousins” by Vampire Weekend. The song is off their new record Contra, which will be released on January 12th 2010. Not too far away. The video is very fun and entertaining . It consists of a rainy alleyway with a camera on a track going up and down the alley and the band in random positions with confetti and all kinds of a crazy stuff going on. Oh yeah, the song is pretty sweet too.

What To Do On Thursday?

• Steely Dan at the Tower Theatre – 8 PM
• Baroness, Earthless, U.S. Christmas, Black Tusk at the First Unitarian Church – 8 PM – $12
• Strapping Fieldhands, D Charles Speer, Megajam Boozeband, DJ Jack Rose at Kung Fu Necktie – 8PM(21+) – $10
• Langhorne Slim, Dawes at Johnny Brendas – 9 PM(21+) – $12
• Jack Oblivian, John Paul Keith and the One Four Fives at the Starlight Ballroom – 9 PM

The other day as I was sitting in front of my computer, I stumbled upon a Twitter post by Grizzly Bear‘s frontman, Edward Droste. He tweet about the new Beach House song “Norway” being posted and that it was ‘fucking amazing.’ I do not know for sure if they are his exact words and I cannot go back and check. It appears that he has deleted his Twitter account (I hope he changes his mind.) When I first listened to the song, I expected to be blown away but I wasn’t. This song may take some time to grow on me. I’ll let you be the judge.

Listen to “Norway” HERE via Stereogum.

What To Do On Wednesday?

The Jesus Lizard

• The Jesus Lizard, Noveller at the Starlight Ballroom – 8 PM – $20
• Bishop Allen, Throw Me The Statue, Darwin Deez at Johnny Brendas – 9 PM(21+) – $12
• Valient Thorr, Red Fang at Kung Fu Necktie – 8 PM(21+) – $10
• El Ten Eleven, Controlled Storms, Disco Machine Gun at the Khyber Pass Pub(21+) – 8 PM

Holdiay Shores‘ frontman, Nathan Pemberton, is a young guy who’s just starting to explore what lies ahead for him. Everything has happened so quickly for him and his band that they are just starting to get their feet wet. After playing two well reviewed CMJ shows in NYC last month, Holiday Shores is in the middle of a few week tour with Evangelicals. Nathan stopped by a few weeks ago to talk about his music, college and the band. Interview below.

Colin: How did you come to be Holiday Shores?

Nathan: It was something I was doing in high school. I took a break for a bit in college but the last year and half of school, I started writing, recording and playing again. I asked my roommates to play with me, started getting this lineup going. It’s a fairly recent thing. I’ve been playing for a while, releasing music under various names.

Colin: That’s cool. Where’d you go to school?

Nathan: I went to community college in Sarasota then FSU for my last two years of college.

Colin: I guess you’re all done with that now?

Nathan: Yeah, I graduated in May so I’ve been kind of hanging out since then. Working and what not. Not using my degree (laughs).

Colin: (Laughs) So what’s the writing process like for you? I hear so many different instruments and noises, are they fixed like that in the beginning or do you add pieces as you go on?

Nathan: I guess a lot of the record I did myself. My friend Josh helped me a lot, he plays in the band, so does my friend Ryan, who also plays with us. But a lot of it started with one layer and more and more layers would get added. Nothing was really set in stone until the recording happened. I’m not good enough of a songwriter to have a complete idea finished before I start recording. The writing takes place during the recording process, for the most part. Things kind of get stacked on each other and more ideas get added until it feels like it’s complete.
Who or what influences your music?

Colin: Uhh.. I don’t know. It’s kind of a hard question to answer. Pretty much the typical stuff. I guess the record was kind of written in a really hectic time with school and everything. So I was to some extent a huge influence was just the pressure of trying to get something done. As far as the influences go, we try to add as many elements as possible to it. One thing I can safely say about the record is you can’t pigeonhole it too much to one sound. Each song is like kind of comprised of all these ideas and different feels. Something like that.

Colin: How did the whole process of the record getting picked up happen? You just graduated in May so it had to of happen pretty quickly.

Nathan: Yeah. The way it worked out is that the label that we’re on now, twosyllable records, had contacted me last summer and they had asked me if I wanted to do anything because they  had heard an EP I put out. We kind of just made plans to do something and it evolved into doing a record then putting it out. I told you I kind of had a dead bind which helped me focus and get the work done for it. So we had an agreement to do something before I had finished the record so it wasn’t like I was shipping out the record looking for people to put it out.

Colin: That’s sweet how it all happened for you.

Nathan: Yeah. I’m not lazy but it’s kind of hard to be super motivated to like create a really… It’s really hard in my mind, especially with school,  to finish something or push myself to do tons of music stuff without an end where it’s released. Luckily having the deadline from the label kind of gave  me the excuse to blow off school and bury my head to finish the record. I don’t think it would have worked out too well if I hadn’t had that offering to put it out.

Colin: Deadlines always help me get my shit done otherwise I’ll keep blowing it off.

Nathan: That’s exactly how I feel as well(laughs).

Colin: So have you guys ever played in or visited Philly before?

Nathan: We haven’t but we were just in Philly a week and half ago. Our friend Scott is doing a music video for us and we were in Philly doing a music video at some warehouse. It was like an old meat packing factory. It was really weird. We were in there for like 7 or 8 hours, it felt like, just shooting this video.

Colin: Do you know where in the city?

Nathan: Uh… 2^nd and Oxford.  I think that was the street. It’s on a street close to this club called The Barbary. It was right down the street from there.

Colin: I know exactly where that is. Is that video out yet or will it be out soon?

Nathan: No.  I think  he’ll be finishing it up in a week or two and it’ll come out a week or two after that. I don’t know if you’ll be able to recognize anything cause it’s all doors and there’s a bunch of green screens and stuff. At least you’ll know it was pretty near(laughs).

Colin: (laughs) Definitely. So after you guys get done touring with Evangelicals, do you have any plans? More touring or anything like that?

Nathan: Um…  not at the moment. Probably write some more music, take it easy and I think February/March, we’ll probably be back out touring and stuff like that.

What To Do On Tuesday?

Holiday Shores

• J. Tillman(of Fleet Foxes), Pearly Gates Music in the Chapel of the First Unitarian Church – 8 PM – $12
• Evangelicals, Holiday Shores at Kung Fu Necktie – 8 PM(21+) – $10
• The Cranberries at the Electric Factory – 8 PM

An interview with Nathan of Holiday Shores will be posted later today.