Compiled by Jackie Lam
We RFSL staffers are completely excited about March's residency at LaBrie's with George Glass. Not only have they recently released a stellar LP, but they are widely regarded as being amazing live. Afterall, George Glass seems to have it all: finely honed chops, raw talent, and a high-energy, balls to the walls stage presence. And it's just our luck that there's five Tuesdays in March. That means five solid weekly showcases with George Glass headlining. In addition to great bands every week, there will be DJ sets. Tonight they'll be joined by POLLS and Death to Anders with guest DJ Joey Siara providing music before and in between sets. Doors open at 8:30 pm, the first band goes on at 9 pm, 21+. Here's a few free downloadable mp3s plus a bit of back story on each respective song from the band:
Chris from POLLS on “Executive Toys”:
I was looking at some Sonic Youth website that lays out all of their weird tunings, album by album, song by song, ad infinitum. I started tuning my guitar to one of them but I got interrupted by a mild earthquake. When I picked up my guitar again it was in D#A#A#FFD, which I thought sounded ok so I went with that. After playing for a little while, I had 2 guitar parts, which is basically all there is in the whole song. The drum beat went through a lot of versions. Every practice working on this song Julien was doing something different. It was basically "We'll know it when we hear it, so just play every beat you can imagine." This went on for a while (not that there was a rush). But I love what he came up with. I like how there's this inertia between the bass and guitars, the bassline pushing and pulling. David is good at coming up with that kind of stuff. Jack (Burnside, producer) suggested that the vocals have a kind of Strokes-distorted-mic effect, so we added a little of that. There's also this synth part that he played on the instrumental sections that I love and always wish we could do it live, but we'd need a 4th band member so we can't and it bums me out. Wanted: Another person to help play stuff live.
Free download: POLLS –“Executive Toys”
Rob from Death to Anders on “Anne Marie”:
"Anne Marie" is one of my favorite songs that I've written because it touches on a subject matter that's inevitably human. In other words, every single one of us has certain thoughts that, no matter the situation, they will at one time or another feel them. What looms in people’s minds when in relationships is
the thought of infidelity. Even in the most brilliantly perfect and functional relationships, the thought of the other one cheating is somewhere hidden in the back of one’s mind. To me, it’s silly that one has to suffer with these thoughts, even though, for most of our cases, nothing bad is happening and every thought is merely based on fear and not fact. In my experience, I've been on both sides of this situation: I have been accused of cheating and I have also accused other of cheating. The one thing that I can confidently say is that with all my relationships, I never once did cheat.
The song “Anne Marie” is about just that. Years ago, I had a three-year relationship with a girl who was terrified that I was sleeping around on her. Although the thoughts were purely in her head and had no actual substance whatsoever, her fear ripped our love apart from the insides and we soon parted ways. Just like her thoughts of infidelity were fictional, I decided to write a song about a fictitious woman named Anne Marie. The story of this song is that if I had cheated on my girlfriend (which I never did) it would be with this woman, Anne Marie, and the song explains how I would have felt if this actually did happen.
Free download: Death to Anders – “Anne Marie”
All of Death to Anders' songs are available to download for free on their bandcamp page.
Nathan of George Glass on “Lil’ Wiz”:
(EP Album art by: Chris "The Rev" Mitchell)
“Lil' Wiz” is basically an account of the most horrific experience of Nick's life. In the time before George Glass, when he was in the band Death to Anders, they were playing a show in Fresno and across from the venue there was this smoke shop called The Wizard. It was actually a strange hybrid smoke shop/bar that was only open from noon to 3pm every day, and this crazy burnout hippie dude ran the place. Nick went inside and bought some Salvia, and the owner kept warning him how potent it was. Nick “sorta scoffed” at his disclaimers, "Since I'd done plenty of hallucinogens over the years. Plus I figured since Salvia was legal, how bad could it be, right?"
His band took off for a show in Merced shortly after. The next day, they were all hanging out by this manmade lake killing time before the show. Nick decided to go into the van and smoke the Salvia. "All I remember is taking a huge rip off of the pipe,” Nick recalls, “and all of a sudden the fabric of reality ripped apart and everyone turned into ancient, pixelated bird beings and they were all squawking and making awful sounds and I just remember being sucked toward the ground and everything was made of sand. I blacked out and woke up wrapped around the leg of my drummer."
Say no to Salvia. Say yes to whatever else.
Free download: George Glass – “Lil’ Wiz”
Related Links:
Radio Free Silver Lake Presents Five FREE Shows in March w/ George Glass
Interview: POLLS
Interview: Death to Anders
Interview: George Glass
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