Articles by " Tiny Waves"
Weaves – “Hulahoop”
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Rising from the ashes of RatTail, Jasmyn Burke and Morgan Waters have put together a new experimental pop venture called Weaves. The Toronto-based duo is filling the void with some noisy feedbacked guitar riffs and some howling vocals to complement it. Though in a different vein than RatTails, Jasmyn’s influence and vocals brings chills down my spine. And although these are early beginnings for this new band, I foresee some great tunes coming out in the future.
North Dakota – “Bikini”
Florida is tiny. The state has over 19 million residents and somehow we still end up running into the same people over and over, even in different parts of the country. At the end of 2012, a few of us Tiny Wavers set out on a road trip to experience the mythical FMLY FEST LA.
During our travels, we were on a constant search for places to rest our heads. When we made it to Phoenix, our good friend from Florida, Eamon Ford, was kind enough to allow us sleep on his floor and take a gander at his beautiful guitar creations, since this was during his luthier studies. We met his roommates who were a bunch of wonderful hosts and treated us like kings and queens with malt beverages. One of Eamon’s roommates, Emily, and I began speaking about music and things of that nature which I soon discovered that she was in a three-piece all girl punk band called North Dakota. She mentioned that Michelle Blades was in the band and I internally freaked. Michelle was a Florida native and in the past made catchy ukulele tunes, but I’d never imagine she’d be making in your face noisy pop-punk. I soon listened and fell in love with their self-titled EP and have been a fan ever since.
Let’s fast forward to the present day and let your ears feast upon the newly released North Dakota album, Pat Waggy. This for me has been on constant rotation and will probably never leave my record player once this baby is pressed. Their solid mixture of gang vocals, funny lyrics and harmonies creates nothing but butterflies in my stomach.
Below, we have “Bikini” and “Galapaghost” for your listening pleasure, but honestly, you should do yourself a favor and buy the whole album.
Visualized: Shane Butler
Shane Butler is one of three in the Boston-based psych-rock band Quilt. The group toured a lot during 2012 and is now recording their new album. I met Shane in March of 2012 when Quilt came through Orlando to play Orange You Glad Fest. The promoter of the show, Chris Anderson, asked me if they could crash at my house. I accepted the offer, but was a bit hesitant since I’d never met the crew before. Just after, I saw them in the parking lot skateboarding, and knew I had found new friends.
I recently found out that Shane is a visual artist, and has been for a while now, so I asked him to send me his work. After an immersive look through, I knew it was important to share his work in any way I could. With that, we chatted on the phone and discussed his influences, ruining his mom’s car as a child artist, and his fascination with cattle auctioneers.
Did you begin doing visual art before you began making music, or the other way around?
I’ve been doing visual art since I was a baby. I’ve always done it. My first art piece I did was when I was a kid. I found this rock outside my house and I drew this giant dinosaur on the side of my parents’ car. Just really scratched it into the side of their car. I ran inside yelling at my mom to come see what I made. She came outside and freaked out because I totally ruined the car. I was a street artist when I was really young. [Laughs] So, yeah I was into art for a while.
That’s awesome. What did your mom do after you ruined her car?
I don’t even know. I was really young like 2 or 3 years old. It was before the time she could actually ground me. I used to make books when I was really young that were filled with drawings and cartoons. I was always really into performing in front of people. I would always try to impress girls I used to like and try to jump off something really tall. That was my first performance art. I think creation has been something I’ve been into at any level.
As you grew older, did you begin exploring different mediums?
Yeah, totally! I was a big skater, so I would make skate videos. I learned how to edit video about the time when I was 12 or 13 to make skate videos. John Andrews [drummer in Quilt] had something to edit video on VHS. We would shoot video a video of us trying tricks we couldn’t do and edit it all together. Skating and performance are really similar. When I went to college, I did a lot of video and performance art there.
When you went to art school, what did you major in?
Our school didn’t have majors. You could build your own curriculum. Whenever I wanted to make a piece, I’d do it for what ever class would fit. I don’t know. I do so many different kinds of art. I make video, music, drawings, photos…all over the place. Whatever kind of idea I want to get across, I choose a medium that will best suit it.
For all of the visual art you do, what influences you?
I really got into cattle auctioneers. I find those guys just going off being like, “1 dollar, 2 dollar, 3 dollar,” being so interesting. I think those dudes are big influences. They’re amazing. I was really into Robert Smithson because he’s totally out there, but he has very grounded essays. I like those kind of dudes who can go totally out there, but can explain their out-there-ness really well. I read a lot also. I really like Lucky Dragons a lot. Basically being an artist and a musician, I got tons of influences by people like them. Do you know who Walter De Maria is?
No, I don’t. Tell me about him.
He’s a great artist. He has pieces in SoHo. He has the “Earth Room” and has the “Broken Kilometer”. They are these two pieces that have been around for 20 years or so. They are always available to go in. He has this crazy lightning shield out in Mexico. It’s these giant steel poles in the middle of a field in New Mexico. You go in there and when go there at sunset, the light hits the poles in such a way that completely alters your vision of what the world is. It’s pretty outlandish and cool.
What’s your process for your collage work? Do you collect images or do you just find them when you have a concept in mind?
I’ll go either way. I collect a ton of images. I collect as many old images as possible. I go through Whole Earth Catalogs a lot. The design in it is amazing. I’m pretty into not being too narrative with collage work. I’m a big fan of being very abstract. I try to collect as many objects and images as I can and try to think about them in different ways.
So are you more aesthetically driven than conceptually driven?
For flyers for sure. It’s all about looking good unless the band is a deeply conceptual band. What I think is so cool about show flyers is that you don’t have anything pretentious about it. You can make stuff that looks cool and have fun with it. It’s just fun. I think that’s something I really like about show flyers. Sometimes I dive into too much conceptuality sometimes and it’s nice to have a medium that you can just not think about that. Just go and create something fun. I feel like a kid doing it.
What medium(s) do you work with most?
I do about two large-scale installation projects a year. I did one with a U-Haul truck with a project inside of it. It was playing some very fast imagery of 500 different images. I do these projects with a lot of research. I’ll base them on video and sound. It’s not like I have an inherit theme that I tie everything to, but I’ll make a concept for that piece.
Cool! What’s new for Quilt that’s coming out?
We’re recording our new record this month. I’m pretty excited. We just finished demoing a lot of songs. We have the skeleton of our record and we’re really excited. That’s something I’m really excited about right now.
Peace Arrow – “Broken Bridge”
Reemerging from the swamplands of Gainesville, Peace Arrow has returned with a new single, “Broken Bridge”, which is off of his upcoming full-length, ↑↓↑↓. Though Mitch has been making Peace Arrow more melodic than his original project Hear Hums, the beginning of this track starts with a mixture of bowed banjo drones, finger-picked guitar rifts, and a simple kalimba scale that keeps you grounded as you get submerged into an ocean of low tones. The build leads you into a soundscape while Mitch’s voice guides you through the articulately messy swamps and caverns that he has created for you to explore. If this is what to come of the Florida native’s solo project, I couldn’t be happier.
Peace Arrow will be doing an east coast tour starting next week. Check the dates below, it’s definitely a show you don’t want to miss.
Fri 4/5 Gainesville, FL
w/ Little Spoon, God Boat, and Rusty Pickles & The Kenzies @ The Display
Sat 4/6 Savannah, GA @Ashmore Gallery
Sun 4/7 Charleston, SC
w/ An Era of Echoes, Elim Bolt
Mon 4/8 Chapel Hill, NC
w/ Sunset Provisions, Auburn Kettle @ The Cave
Tue 4/9 Richmond, VA
w/ The Colloquial Orchestra, Houdan the Mystic @ Gallery5
Wed 4/10 Baltimore, MD
w/ Wing Dam, Which Magic, and Omoo Omoo @ Metro Gallery
Thu 4/11 Philadelphia, PA
w/ Gemini Wolf, Mike Bruno & Black Magic Family Band, and Young Man @ North Star Bar
Fri 4/12 New York, NY
w/ Eola, Andy Boay, Julian Paradise, Dillon James Rego, Angelo Spagnolo @ Silent Barn
Sat 4/13 Boston, MA
Sun 4/14 Amherst, MA
w/ Bella’s Bartok, Rabbit Rabbit, and Smoked Salmon @ Dad City
Mon 4/17 New York, NY@ Rufus Rukus Gallery
Tue 4/16 Knoxville, TN
w/ Persona La Ave @ The Pilot Light
Thu 4/18 Asheville, NC
w/ Mushigo Palm, Kirume Sands-Pleine @ Apothecary
Fri 4/19 Athens, GA
w/ Spirit Tramp, Future Ape Tapes
Sat 4/20 Atlanta, GA
w/ The Dandyls, Futo
Sun 4/21 Macon, GA
w/ Josh Mcginty, and Quazi Bumpkiss’ Fuzzy Lil Navel @ Nospace
Mon 4/22 Jacksonville, FL
Fri 4/26 Lake Worth, FL
@ Coasters Coffee Bar
Sat 4/27 Sarasota, FL
Photo: PORTALSXSW 2013
Photos: Daniel Dorsa
SXSW is a crazy time for all of us attendees. It’s a time to see some of our favorites artists, meet people (especially if you know them through the internet), and discover new music that you couldn’t have fathomed seeing live. This year we celebrated SXSW with not only some of our favorite up and coming artists, but also some older favorites. And with help from the Hype Machine, we were able to put together a lineup that got all of us moving and brought tears to our eyes. The PORTALS family couldn’t be happier to show you some images to relive (or experience if you weren’t there) the performances from Chrome Sparks, Mac DeMarco, HAERTS, Blue Hawaii, FIDLAR, and Toro y Moi. Thank you for coming out and enjoying yourself. We hope you had as many memorable moments as we did. See you next year!
Chrome Sparks:
Monster Rally (DJ):
Mac DeMarco:
HAERTS:
Blue Hawaii:
FIDLAR:
Toro y Moi:
