cavedoll

Music | Know Your Local...Electro-rocker: Vanessa Chamberlain of Cavedoll

By Jon Paxton
Posted 11/13/2008

Click to read the shorter piece at SLWeekly.com and to see a pic of Vanessa.

Cavedoll singer/producer Vanessa Chamberlain, wife and creative partner of frontman Camden, is a local scene mainstay known for her signature sound and style. Chamberlain’s been in the biz since she was just a wee thing singing Christmas carols to senior citizens: “Anywhere they could put a mic in front of me, I’d sing.” Cavedoll performs as part of the free, all-ages Fat Flake Festival at the Gallivan Center, Saturday, Nov. 15, 4:30-10 p.m.

Favorite songwriter?
Excluding my husband Camden? That is such a hard question. John Lennon. Default is always a Beatle. John Lennon is definitely an amazing songwriter. Especially after he left The Beatles. Some of the lyrics off of Imagine...

If you could do one thing for America what would it be?
The one thing I’m trying to do right now is raise global citizens [referencing her three children]. Children aware of problems that go on beyond their front door. I hope that all parents feel that is their duty to raise good Americans.

Vanessa Chamberlain
Age: 29
Utah Resident: 26 Years
Band: Cavedoll
What local causes do you support?
The Utah Pride Center and Shriner’s Hospital. People need to support Shriner’s and donate because they’re running out; that’s what they survive on.

Favorite coffee and tea place?
My favorite all time place in Salt Lake is The Beehive Tea Room. It’s a great place to take a date, a casual date. It’s a sit down and chat and have a tiny sandwich place.

Favorite snack?
I’m way into raw almonds, it’s my default snack.

Perfect afternoon?
It would probably involve yarn at some point creating something. And being with Camden.

What nature spot do you enjoy escaping everyone at?
I live by Millcreek in Salt Lake [City]. Whenever we can we go up there. It’s really, really pretty.

What was the first album that really resonated with you?
Jane’s Addiction’s Nothing’s Shocking. I remember dancing in my bedroom and losing my mind.

What would be an embarrassing band from youth you might not like to bring up?
When I was in the 5th grade I was so into Paula Abdul. And now she’s so crazy, that poor woman. It’s like when people get too rich they get weird.

Favorite instrument to play?
My voice, I guess. I’d actually much rather produce songs than sing them.

Any local visual artists turn you on?
I really really got into the 337 Project when it was here. Our music was listed on the DVD.

How would you like to be defined in the local music industry?
As a good musician in general. I think, because in the local scene women aren’t as prominent as a lot of dudes around here, it’s a little weird. It’s inevitable as a woman I’ll get a little more attention but I don’t think it defines me in the music scene.

What did you think when NPR did a piece on your band and featured your song “Decoder” as Song of the Day last summer?
I was extremely proud and ecstatic.

What question have you never been asked but really would like to be asked?
My question would be: “Why? Why do you make music?” People don’t ask that because they think they know the answer.

Why then?
It’s a legacy in a way, like a tattoo.

A tattoo on the heart of Salt Lake?
A tattoo on the heart of me. Because my lyrics are very cryptic but to me they remind me of a specific place, time, and instance and experience. Music is a tattoo. That’s what tattoos and what music are: a reminder.

Where did you enjoy playing lately?
D-Fest in Tulsa. It’s a huge music festival, a lot of local Tulsa bands, people from all over converged on Tulsa–it was really cool. It was also cool because I hooked up with a clothing company there that gave me a lot of performance clothes.

Great segue. Because we’re about to talk about style. What’s the name of the company?
It’s called Ra$pberry Grunt http://www.myspace.com/raspberrygrunt. They started in 2006 and what they do is take vintage clothing and do updated screen prints on them so they look more ‘today’.

They have guy’s stuff too?
Yep. They have ties. Vintage pants and shirts and jackets.

What else do they do?
They will print on anything. I sent them some stuff and they printed on a jacket and some dresses. I let them go and they printed some really cool stuff on them.

How would you describe your style?
My stage style is the shorter and tighter version of my regular style. And, of course, the crazy printings of Ra$pberry Grunt.

Where do you get the inspiration for your stage style?
It comes from the music itself. There’s a little bit of punk in there: that can incorporate a lot of the jewelry. And the makeup and hair that Janice and Allison [other members of Cavedoll] and I do is really glam influenced.

Where do you shop locally?
Anywhere. I like to go to Pib’s Exchange. You can find cool stuff if you always have your eye open. Since I’m crafty I make a lot of stuff. I make a lot of my jewelry and accessories and hats that I wear.

What is your most enjoyable instrument to play?
My voice, I guess. I’d actually much rather produce songs than sing them.

Who would be one of you most-loved local musicians?
Jameson Wilkinson. He played drums for us for a while. Now he’s a pilot. He’s one of the best drummers and musicians that I think Salt Lake has produced. I hope he can arrange it and balance it where he can play out because he’s definitely worth keeping around.

What’s a bar you enjoy?
ABG’s in Provo. They have killer Long Island Iced Teas.

What’s your beverage of choice?
Diet Coke with Vanilla vodka. You have to even out your calorie intake. There’s no shame in it. Diet Coke is good, it’s my favorite drink.

What kind of place do you like to go grub up at?
I like breakfast a lot. Right by my house is Millcreek Egg Works. That place is really good and way affordable and fun to go to in the morning. But they play too much U2 in there.

Click here for its original location

Gang Gang Dance
11.08.08
Kilby Court
by JP [jonathanpaxton@gmail.com]

Certain bands can take you places, metaphysical places. Gang Gang Dance is one of those bands. I noticed myself zoning in and out as three percussionists, at points, tweaked their sound to the limit of my sonic understanding and to “the beyond.” I really enjoy drums and Gang Gang Dance know how to use them.

I can’t possibly tell you how interesting and unique this group was to experience live but I will try. I can perhaps best illustrate this point by telling you how I usually react to music after a show from an artist or group. After seeing the musicians live I have to listen to an entirely different genre to cleanse my palate as an audio slice of pickled ginger. Usually I’m very tired of the band at that point and want to keep the live experience fresh in my head. Gang Gang Dance left me lusting for more and I’ve been listening to them for the last few hours since I saw them live. This is highly unusual for me and one of the greatest compliments that I might pay the Brooklyn based group (I’m sure they’re shitting themselves with glee right now at that). I’m even listening right now. Click here then on the Gang Gang Dance album and “See All Free Downloads” to hear what I mean.

I had no idea how the sound of their latest album, St. Dymphna, could be recreated live, it is that layered, but the group did it. They fucking did it. And only four people were required to mix an insane blend of electronic noise with the most basic of percussion––a metal pan of some sort made a brief appearance––being utilized at points. The music live reminded me of the Blade Runner score: haunting, ethereal and very futuristic. If you closed your eyes you could see Harrison Ford getting rained on and Sean Young’s brown eyes emoting all over the place. Perhaps I’ve been reading too much Philip K. Dick lately, and that has something to do with it, and, in combination with a boyhood crush I had on Ms. Young, it may be compounding that effect. The fact that the music did such a great job of resonating on so many levels of pop-culture in my head, ranging from rhythmically resounding drum performances I’ve enjoyed from traditional Japanese drummers to bits of puff like sci-fi classics means that Gang Gang did what music live is supposed to do.

The performance was on point and very taxing to the group. It definitely required effort. I believe every member of the band was sweating by the end of the set. That is a good rule of thumb for an electricity-filled show, and a sign of laziness in older rockers. Sweat motherfuckers! If you aren’t rocking hard enough to bust a few beads then you shouldn’t be charging 70-plus dollars to fill the Delta Center, or some other acoustically cursed shite venue.

Kilby Court is the perfect venue for Gang Gang Dance and I hope they never lose that perspiring edge that they have right now. That would be a crime against experimental music and a shitty experience if too much distance is placed between this collective and the crowd. Lead vocalist and part-time percussionist Liz Bougatsos felt that way too and commented in her heavy Brooklyn accent something along the lines of “Salt Lake has some amazin dancas. Some of the best dancas I’ve ever seen.” And she would know because she was only two feet from those kids shaking their brains out. It made me glad to see, once again, the little venue I first enjoyed almost a decade ago still around and still bringing quality acts to bear in front of all ages crowds––up close and very personal. Kudos to Sartain and Lance once again.

One of the standout songs performed from the latest album was “Vacuum” a piece with a trip-hop intro and haunting keyboard bends, an electronic trick I wanted to see live, and was not disappointed by. Some of the sounds this group emits make somebody like me, who thinks he is quite aware of how most sounds are made, scratch my head in confusion. The guitarist fully utilized his stack of three plus processors/amps (digital-screened and of a variety I have never seen before) to fully integrate into the sound. You’d be hard pressed to hear the guitar on this track if you didn’t actually see the man create it live. I still don’t know what the hell kind of effects that guy uses, and maybe want to leave that mystery partly unsolved, but they turn out great live.

I don’t want to give too many compliments because this small edition of critical praise adds up with all the other press and means they will eventually grow beyond the bounds of Kilby. And I do understand that is sometimes part of the creative process and growth cycle. So listen, if you must, but promise not to bring any douchebags to their next show, OK?

––JP

dukespirit

The Duke Spirit at The Urban Lounge
November 5th, 2008

Leila Moss is a rock goddess. If you learn one thing about the live experience of The Duke Spirit, that should be it. I haven’t been rocked this hard by a female vocalist at The Urban Lounge since Theo and The Skyscrapers knocked my boots the fuck off a few years ago. Theo was standing on a lightbox that hightened the hotness effect but Leila only needed her sexy British accent to get the guys in the audience going. I saw several, ahem, perk up at her first utterance. There was some music of some sort as well.

On that note, I wasn’t really enjoying the band as they started their set and was quite disappointed that the songs were preceding along at a slower clip than the album cuts from Neptune I’ve been used to, but the band steadily picked it up and Leila started shaking her black feather boa to better effect–and the audience reciprocated with appropriate shimmying and head nodding.

To say that we weren’t all won over by the end would be an understatement. The applause got more raucous as the set preceeded. The band started off with their song entitled, well, how about you look at the set list below, all you diehards, and see how it went yourself.



I snagged the above from the stage to make this whole review thing easier and took a picture to simplify it even more for all of us.

Thankfully there were only two bands playing that night because I am quite turned off by all the fucking smoke these venues emit, and as a former almost pack a day smoker who never thought he’d say it, I welcome when Utah will go smoke free January 1st, 2009.
I think it’s time we left archaic and factually-proven detrimental personal “choices” in the ignorant century they belong and not in people’s faces. *cough cough* Before anybody gets too chapped, I’m fine with ya’ll smoking yourself (and hated it just as much as you do when someone criticized me in the past) as long as whatever health care plan this country adopts takes that into account and doesn’t support the costs of the medical bills from it. Let the tobacco companies pay those individually in lawsuit awards, I say. They’ve made enough money off other people’s misery and should start ponying up.

Look, that may have pissed people off, but what I’m about to say may make even more hipfucks bitter but I don’t give a fuck. I didn’t really enjoy The Eagles of Death Metal. I haven’t really heard this band much before, admittedly, but a live show is what really sells me on a group, regardless. It is the ultimate decider, the kind George W. Bush wanted to be. And I was not sold by T.E.O.D.M.

Don’t get me wrong, I saw how cool everybody at the show was and how very gritty and rock ‘n roll T.E.O.D.M. are but I can go plunk around 3 chords with shitty backing vocals myself if I wanted to hear some uncreative, repetitive shit. And I know it is kind of a joke to have a band have the title “Death Metal” in their name but really, how ironic/po-mo must we be to see it’s just gussied up garage rock? I’ve decided, as well, that any percussionist who only has one tom and no more than four cymbals isn’t worth shit. Percussion really livens up a performance and not much can be improved on with three drums. But maybe I have yet to see a drummer that knows what the fuck they are doing with only a three piece kit.

I mean, he only had three drums for fuck’s sake (to beat a dead horse some more, pun intended)! I know that is en vogue lately but it also could be a sign of a shitty drummer people, and a sign of your stupidity at thinking it’s fucking edgy. It’s not. It’s a cop-out considering the breadth of percussion choices available to the modern drummer. I noticed the guy had an electric drum pad of some sort, which didn’t make a whole helluva lot of sense either. They aren’t an electronic group. Get some more toms for chrissake.

Long story short: The Duke Spirit are worth seeing again, and unless your scene cred depends on seeing The Eagles of Death Metal, stay home and save your lungs ‘til the ban is official.

pseudo

Click Here
to go to the original article's location at SLUG. While you're there you could comment for once, jeez a louis.

And check out the cover of SLUG this month. That's Mr. Workman himself.

Music Is Not A Commodity, It's an Art. Pseudo Recordings Gets Deep on Our Asses
by JP
November 2008

Owner/Founder: Ryan Workman
Year Established: 2002
Current artists: Wolfs, Red Bennies, Black Hole , ¡ANDALE! , Danger Hailstorm, Madraso , Vile Blue Shades
Number of releases to date: 15

National Distribution: CDBaby.com, interpunk. com, as well as directly through pseudo recordings (and 8ctopus records with certain releases)-most is direct mail order from Ryan's house.

Is Roster Available on itunes?: No, but you will find most (if not all) of the catalog online for download by the end of the year.

Number of albums sold: Just shy of a thousand locally and abroad.

Website: pseudorecordings.com



Maintaining anything in the local music scene can be tough for most people. Bands come and go with members in various states of faltering dedication to their music. Labels spring up for a release or two then pass on just as quickly as they arrived. Pseudo Recordings is a rare entity in such a scene—it's still around after six years. Pseudo has featured some of the most talented and diverse bands Salt Lake City has ever seen, including The Red Bennies, Cosm, ¡Andale!, Erosion and The Vile Blue Shades. Several more acts round out the roster of label affiliations, amounting to 15 total releases.

Some labels specialize in a niche or at least think they do, but Pseudo Recordings' owner and operator Ryan Workman has never been one to be constrained. "I don't want it to have a set sound. Some labels, that's what they build their roster around: a certain style of music. But the scene here is not a certain style of music and I want it to be representative of that."

Looking at the long list of artists affiliated with Pseudo Recordings, including Seattle-based Madraso and local groups Danger Hailstorm, Cavedoll, Blackhole, and The Wolfs, one can see that diversity is a factor. "I'd like to say it's deliberate," Workman jokingly adds. Still, he says "a lot of the bands have been on the louder side, whether it's rock and roll, punk rock, garage rock––whatever the current buzz term is. At the same time, I worked with Cosm, which is totally west of center."

Because Workman is a musician himself (he played in local act Mayberry), he knows more than most about what makes a good label work. "If you're just some schmuck who comes off the street with a few bucks and says, 'I want to produce your band,' but you've not played in a band you're not going to know the recording process, you're not going to know rehearsals versus shows. You'll be just another profiteer," Workman says.

He continues, "If anything you're just going to see it as a commodity. And from a musician's point of view, you're seeing it more for the art and the music involved. You realize that 'I helped get it into the hands of the people.' These guys [musicians] created it. These guys wrote the songs. And I helped get it to the public. And you feel good about that because you have to feel good about the music. You can't throw money at a pile of garbage and expect it to make money. You have to really want it to succeed." He concludes, "If it was a money making venture, though, I would have given it up a long time ago."

Though he has already found success with the label, Workman is still interested in expanding the Pseudo sound. "I would be willing to approach anything from avant-garde to acoustic. Throw in some altcountry or go the other direction with extreme noise or metal. There's no reason I shouldn't." From his track record there isn't a reason he shouldn't try, regardless of the style en vogue locally. "I've been doing it for five years and I'm not planning on giving up. I've been frustrated and I've also been really excited about stuff. As long as I feel that what I'm doing is considered a contribution to the local scene, I'll still do it."

Keeping artists happy is of great importance to Pseudo's continued existence as well, and the key to that is communication. "Because I'm a small operation, who else are they going to talk to? They're going to talk to me." Even though running the label solo can be difficult for Workman, he still says, "I try as hard as I can to be the one at the shows selling the merch. Not some guy with a box of CDs he doesn't worry about." He clearly embraces the DIY mentality.

Current releases to check out from Pseudo include the ¡Andale! Debut, made of eco-friendly packaging from recycled materials, down to the soda bottle plastic tray, a Vile Blue Shades 8ctopus Records split release entitled Triple Threat and Danger Hailstorm's first release, One.

Workman has done his part to keep the local scene alive, but ultimately, the future of the scene isn't in the hands of the labels or the bands, but the fans. "I think what the scene needs, if anything, is a little bit more support from the people. Not for the sake of spending money at a bar, but to give their moral support in-person for the band. Just being there. Listening to the local bands, it's vital."

Discography:
Pseudo Recordings

PR-001: Erosion – Coma – 3 Song E.P. 7 inch (colored vinyl only) (2003)
PR-002: Cosm – 6 Song E.P – CD (2003)
PR-003: Cosm – Fast Way To Go – 12 inch E.P. (vinyl only) (2004)
PR-004: Erosion – No One Can Hear You Scream – CD (2003)
PR-005: Wolfs – I Want More – 7inch (colored vinyl only) (2003)
PR-006: Cosm – Fast Way To Go – CD Single (2004) OUT OF PRINT
PR-007: Red Bennies – Walk Right In – (colored vinyl only) (2004)
PR-008: Wolfs – Lights Out +4 – CD E.P. (2004)
PR-009: Wolfs – The Wolfs – Full length CD (2005)
PR- 010: Blackhole – Blackhole – Full Length CD (2006) (Co-released with 8ctopus Records)
PR-011: Cosm – Microphone Boutique – CD EP (2006)
PR-012: Vile Blue Shades – Triple Threat– CD (2007) (Co-released with 8ctopus Records)
PR-013: ¡ANDALE! – S/T – Full Length CD (2008)
PR-014: Danger Hailstorm – One – Full Length CD (2008) (Released on Pseudo Recordings, even though Pop Sweatshop is listed)
PR-015 Blackhole/Madraso (from Seattle) Split 7 inch (vinyl only) (2008)