Surfer Blood – Communiqué

Guided By Voices rock Magnet Magazine Birthday Show (May 22, 2014)

by Trixie Noyes

On Thursday night, Philly’s Magnet Magazine held a “21st birthday” show. Guided by Voices played the Trocadero, the third time they played this venue since the classic lineup was reconstituted; opening sets of the show featured Titus Andronicus and Surfer Blood. While GBV is famed for their short pop confections, they played for nearly two hours and two encores. Needless to say, they rocked a bunch of old favorite tunes (“Exit Flagger,” “I am a Scientist,” “Tractor Rape Chain,” and “Game of Pricks”) in addition to songs from their latest LP Cool Planet. There were familiar antics: multiple coolers of beer, the Who-style microphone swinging and guitar windmills. Pollard said that the first time they played Philly they drank for 12 hours straight before getting on stage and that at this gig they only had two hours to drink before the show. Despite this they were every bit as good as the first time I saw them at the Khyber in 1993!

Here’s a review of the show in haiku form (courtesy of Kirby Bell):

Guided by Voices

Got drunk, rocked out hard, kicked ass

You weren’t there? Asshole.

Surfer Blood talk Halloween costumes, flax crackers, and haunted practice spaces.

We spoke with Surfer Blood members John Paul Pitts, Thomas Fekte, Tyler Schwarz, and Kevin Williams before their midnight show at the TLA on October 4th. Read below to find out about new obstacles they encountered moving onto a major label, their favorite horror movie, and what they’re thinking of dressing up as for Halloween.

Shannen: How did you guys all meet?

JP: Well, we’re all from the same town; we all grew up there at least. We went to high school there, and we were all playing in bands that were a little bit left of center. We all were sort of aware of each other and what we were doing, and yeah, I mean one day we started recording demos of some of the Surfer Blood songs. It wasn’t really serious and I guess Tom heard it and brought it up to me that he’d like to play guitar.

Shannen: Do you remember what some of those first songs were?

JP: A lot of the songs ended up on Astro Coast, our first record. I don’t think it was ever really supposed to be a proper record or anything, it was just something that we started and I felt really, really compelled to finish. So yeah, some of those songs ended up on the record later.

TF: I think the first song that I had heard was “Fast Jabroni”. That was a really early one that you guys had written.

TS: There are some demos that we’ve never even put out that I have on my computer. Well my laptop was stolen, so I must have lost some of them, but we had some kind of pirate-sounding songs.

Shannen: I think you guys tweeted the other day that you recorded on a Dell. Was that the laptop that got stolen?

TF: Yeah, I tweeted a really ridiculous run-on sentence that was ranting about Macintosh, even though I have nothing against Mac. I was just basically saying you don’t have to have a Mac, and we made a record on a Dell.

JP: There is so much digital noise on that record, though. If you listen closely there are so many parts where it’s just like (makes noise).

Continue reading “Surfer Blood talk Halloween costumes, flax crackers, and haunted practice spaces.”

Top Played Artists 7/16/2013 – 7/23/2013

1 KING TUFF Was Dead (Burger)

2 OWEN L’Ami Du Peuple (Polyvinyl)

3 SHANNON AND THE CLAMS Dreams In The Rat House (Hardly Art)

4 SMITH WESTERNS Soft Will (Mom And Pop)

5 LEMURIA The Distance Is So Big (Bridge Nine)

6 HUNX AND HIS PUNX Street Punk (Hardly Art)

7 SPEEDY ORTIZ Major Arcana (Carpark)

8 SURFER BLOOD Pythons (Warner Brothers)

9 SALVIA PLATH The Bardo Story (Weird World)

10 CAMERA OBSCURA Desire Lines (4AD)

11 PITY SEX Feast Of Love (Run For Cover)

12 BASS DRUM OF DEATH Bass Drum Of Death (Innovative Leisure)

13 SERENGETI Kenny Dennis (Anticon)

14 PRIMAL SCREAM More Light (Ignition)

15 GAUNTLET HAIR Stills (Dead Oceans)

16 ROBERT POLLARD Honey Locust Honky Tonk (GBV Inc.)

17 WILD NOTHING Empty Estate (Captured Tracks)

18 IRON AND WINE Ghost On Ghost (Nonesuch)

19 HALF MOON RUN Dark Eyes (Glassnote)

20 PORTUGAL. THE MAN Evil Friends (Atlantic)

21 BIBIO Silver Wilkinson (Warp)

22 MIKAL CRONIN MCII (Merge)

23 SIGUR ROS Kveikur (XL)

24 GOLD AND YOUTH Beyond Wilderness (Arts And Crafts)

25 HOT CHIP Dark And Stormy [EP] (Domino)

26 DAVID LYNCH Big Dream (Sacred Bones)

27 PSYCHIC TEENS Come (SRA Records)

28 DEAFHEAVEN Sunbather (Deathwish)

29 LIGHTNING DUST Fantasy (Jagjaguwar)

30 OBLIVIANS Desperation (In The Red)

Top Played Artists 7/9/2013 – 7/16/2013

1 PITY SEX Feast Of Love (Run For Cover)
2 OWEN L’Ami Du Peuple (Polyvinyl)
3 SHANNON AND THE CLAMS Dreams In The Rat House (Hardly Art)
4 KING TUFF Was Dead (Burger)
5 SMITH WESTERNS Soft Will (Mom And Pop)
6 PORTUGAL. THE MAN Evil Friends (Atlantic)
7 SPEEDY ORTIZ Major Arcana (Carpark)
8 SURFER BLOOD Pythons (Warner Brothers)
9 CAMERA OBSCURA Desire Lines (4AD)
10 PRIMAL SCREAM More Light (Ignition)
11 BIBIO Silver Wilkinson (Warp)
12 IRON AND WINE Ghost On Ghost (Nonesuch)
13 SALVIA PLATH The Bardo Story (Weird World)
14 MIKAL CRONIN MCII (Merge)
15 NORTHERN LIBERTIES Collaboration (Badmaster)
16 SIGUR ROS Kveikur (XL)
17 LEMURIA The Distance Is So Big (Bridge Nine)
18 SONNY AND THE SUNSETS Antenna To The Afterworld (Polyvinyl)
19 GOLD AND YOUTH Beyond Wilderness (Arts And Crafts)
20 GRANDCHILDREN Golden Age (Earnest Jenning)
21 FRONT BOTTOMS Talon Of The Hawk (Bar/None)
22 CITY AND COLOUR The Hurry And The Harm (Dine Alone)
23 LIGHT HEAT Light Heat (Domino-Ribbon)
24 ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER Personal Record (Merge)
25 ROGUE WAVE Nightingale Nights (Vagrant)
26 BASS DRUM OF DEATH Bass Drum Of Death (Innovative Leisure)
27 OBLIVIANS Desperation (In The Red)
28 SOKO I Thought I Was An Alien (Community)
29 BOSNIAN RAINBOWS Bosnian Rainbows (Sargent House)
30 COOL GHOULS Cool Ghouls (Empty Cellar)

Top Played Artists 7/2/2013 – 7/9/2013

1 KING TUFF Was Dead (Burger)

2 PITY SEX Feast Of Love (Run For Cover)

3 SONNY AND THE SUNSETS Antenna To The Afterworld (Polyvinyl)

4 NORTHERN LIBERTIES Northern Liberties (Collaborations)

5 SHANNON AND THE CLAMS Dreams In The Rat House (Hardly Art)

6 PORTUGAL. THE MAN Evil Friends (Atlantic)

7 CAPITAL CITIES In A Tidal Wave Of Mystery (Capitol)

8 OWEN L’Ami Du Peuple (Polyvinyl)

9 IRON AND WINE Ghost On Ghost (Nonesuch)

10 GRANDCHILDREN Golden Age (Earnest Jenning)

11 SIGUR ROS Kveikur (XL)

12 NATIONAL Trouble Will Find Me (4AD)

13 CITY AND COLOUR The Hurry And The Harm (Dine Alone)

14 WILD NOTHING Empty Estate (Captured Tracks)

15 BIBIO Silver Wilkinson (Warp)

16 OBLIVIANS Desperation (In The Red)

17 SURFER BLOOD Pythons (Warner Brothers)

18 SHMNS Between Here And There (Self-Released)

19 MIKAL CRONIN MCII (Merge)

20 LIGHT HEAT Light Heat (Domino-Ribbon)

21 SAVAGES Silence Yourself (Matador)

22 CAMERA OBSCURA Desire Lines (4AD)

23 BIG DEAL June Gloom (Mute)

24 GRMLN Empire (Carpark)

25 POKEY LAFARGE Pokey LaFarge (Third Man)

26 PASTELS Slow Summits (Domino)

27 CHEYENNE MIZE Among The Grey (Yep Roc)

28 BASS DRUM OF DEATH Bass Drum Of Death (Innovative Leisure)

29 DAUGHN GIBSON Me Moan (Sub Pop)

30 PRIMAL SCREAM More Light (Ignition)

Top Played Artists 6/25/2013 – 7/2/2013

1 CAMERA OBSCURA Desire Lines (4AD)

2 OBLIVIANS Desperation (In The Red)

3 SHANNON & THE CLAMS Dreams in The Rathouse (Hardly Art)

4 PORTUGAL. THE MAN Evil Friends (Atlantic)

5 CAPITAL CITIES In a Tidal Wave of Mystery (Lazy Hooks)

6 KING TUFF Was Dead (Burger)

7 PRIMAL SCREAM More Light (Ignition)

8 SONNY AND THE SUNSETS Antenna to the Afterworld (Polyvinyl)

9 GRANDCHILDREN Golden Age (Earnest Jenning)

10 THE NATIONAL Trouble Will Find Me (4AD)

11 WILD NOTHING Empty Estate (Captured)

12 ROGUE WAVE Nightingale Floors (Vagrant)

13 SIGUR ROS Kveikur (XL)

14 CITY AND COLOUR The Hurry and the Harm (Dine Alone)

15 SMITH WESTERNS Soft Will (Mom + Pop)

16 GRMLN Empire (Carpark)

17 MELORMAN Waves (Sun Sea Sky)

18 SURFER BLOOD Pythons (Sire)

19 SHMNS Somewhere Between Here and There (Self-Released)

20 MIKAL CRONIN MCII (Merge)

21 ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER Personal Record (Merge)

22 SAVAGES Silence Yourself (Matador)

23 BIBIO Silver Wilkinson (Warp)

24 EMILY WELLS Mama Acoustic Recordings (Partisan)

25 MOUNT KIMBIE Cold Spring Fault Less Youth (Warp)

26 POKEY LAFARGE S/T (Third Man)

27 THE PASTELS Slow Summits (Domino)

28 THE WOOLEN MEN The Dog Years (Woodsist)

29 WAMPIRE Curiosity (Polyvinyl)

30 LAURA MARLING Once I Was An Eagle (Virgin)