Tag: Fugazi

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Ep. #137: Xylouris White

Xylouris White is an extraordinary music pairing featuring George Xylouris, a renowned lute player in the Cretan folk tradition, and Jim White, a tremendous drummer known for his work in the Dirty Three and with Will Oldham, PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, and more. The duo have just released a stirring new album called Goats that bridges gaps between Greek music and post-punk, while also touching upon other cultures and genres for something altogether unique. Goats was produced by Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto, it’s out now via Other Music Recording Co., and has prompted Xylouris White to tour across North America and Europe throughout October and November. Here, both men and I discuss how they met each other 25 years ago in Australia, how George lived in Melbourne for a while and saw Jim’s punk band with Mick Turner and also the Dirty Three, how Jim would see George and his dad play too, how George would some times play with the Dirty Three, how Xylouris White started two years ago, why Jim took a while to get to Crete but then went straight to the studio and ate goat for lunch, how the songs they worked on are constantly changing, sitting versus dancing songs in Cretan folk, how traditionalism works within innovation, feelings and space, when George began working with his father, renowned lyra player Antonis Xylouris, a.k.a. Psarandonis, at 12 years old, touring Europe as a kid, the piece “Psarandonis Syrto,” why Cretan folk traditions often include re-making older songs in some way, nothing is original, the melodies are not stuck on the words, pieces like “Fandomas” are ever-changing, 15 syllables, longing and love songs, keeping traditions vital, chickens, Jim’s musical origin story, the Saints, growing up in a Greek area of Melbourne, the Laughing Clowns and Jeffrey Wegener, being part of a community, working with Guy Picciotto and how he inspired deeper feeling within Xylouris White, when Jim, George, and Guy work on live scores for Jem Cohen films, making another record while on their extensive tour this fall, the songs “Pulling the Bricks” and “Suburb,” tremolo or caterpillar strumming, and then we’re like the wind.

Related links: xylouriswhite.com othermusicrecordingco.com vishkhanna.com

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Ep. #111: Hamilton Leithauser

Hamilton Leithauser is a very talented singer and songwriter who is best known for fronting the acclaimed New York City band, the Walkmen. Last year, the Walkmen announced they’d be taking an extended hiatus after releasing a string of wonderful albums. Before long, members of the band began releasing solo material, including Leithauser. His new album is the startling and wondrous Black Hours, a timeless star-studded pop affair that was released on June 3 via Ribbon Music, and has prompted him to tour including a stop at Hamilton, Ontario’s Supercrawl this September. Here, Hamilton and I discuss NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series, that time I saw the Walkmen play one of their last shows together in Halifax this past October, knocking a tooth out on a microphone, when work on Black Hours first began, why he made a record under his own name, who helped make this album a star-studded affair, the relationship between the conception of this solo record and the end of the Walkmen and why the band is taking a break, Frank Sinatra records, songwriting reversal, a nightclub, night time tone within the phrase “black hours,” Danzig, Self-Pity, growing up in Washington D.C. and seeing Minor Threat, Nation of Ulysses, Fugazi, and other Dischord Records bands, playing punk, working as a studio assistant at Inner Ear studios while Fugazi was recording Red Medicine, not making it into Instrument, being young and apolitical, loving the Make-Up and Ian Svenonius, the Cramps and the Modern Lovers, lead singers versus bands, Chain and the Gang, being in a band or being on your own, not sounding like the Walkmen, the new record’s weird storyline, the bizarre circumstance of the Walkmen’s “extreme hiatus,” trying new things but the Walkmen will likely be back, it’s fun to play, there are already new songs written but there was some writer’s block, working well with others, playing “Mr November” with the National, Hamilton playing Hamilton, Ontario, the song “The Silent Orchestra,” and then Hamilton out.

Related links: hamiltonleithauser.com vishkhanna.com

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Ep. #107: Friendly Rich

Friendly Rich is a strange but great man who originally hails from Brampton just outside of Toronto, Ontario. He is a singer, songwriter, educator, impresario, and instigator who has released 10 albums to date, including his latest, Bountiful, which is out on June 24 via the Pumpkin Pie Corporation. Friendly Rich and his band will celebrate its release with a show at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto on July 24, which follows a sojourn across Europe in June and July. Friendly Rich recently visited me at my home where we had a spirited chat about prepping for a walk down to the Guelph Farmer’s Market, the joys of Eric the Baker, how my son doesn’t want to be on the show, how my wife and I don’t like carrying our son anymore, Goldie Hawn, John Cage, and Silence Guelph, living in Oakville, petunia spotting, the impact of the provincial election on Guelph, Rich gets self-conscious meeting the general public on our interview stroll, a firetruck at a crosswalk, the Regent Park School of Music and Saturday Night Live’s Hal Willner and Kevin Drew and Daniel Lanois, the Brampton Indie Arts Festival was a visionary thing, pranking bad mayors, my son the difficult interview subject, Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo and Marc Ribot, when the BIAF got different, slaughtering lambs in Brampton garages and filling blue boxes full of red blood, why is Friendly Rich so weird, Nudetella, infiltrating the system with subversive performance art, running into Charlie Cares busking, Raynaud’s syndrome, Rich drops a fiver inside Charlie’s case, Charlie sings us “Wildwood Flower,” locking things up, running into musician/NDP candidate/Hillside Festival founder James Gordon and peppering him with the tough questions, Arthur MacInnes has a nice shirt and is an old, Fugazi road-trip buddy, Meral the Turkish food chef whom I still owe a dollar, delicious böreks, the “Sausage Samba” saga, regulation sausage in Germany, combining the worlds of Star Trek: The Next Generation and sausage auditing for a music video that has been championed by Funny or Die and Team Coco, running into visual artist Gillian Wilson who should not be a stranger, my wife needs money, Gregory Pepper is cleaning out the eavestroughs, Art on the Street, goat’s milk, Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s death train, “Penis Suitcase” and the super strange funeral ritual of the king of Zambia, my son eats peppers like they’re apples, darkness and childlike innocence, running into Matt Collins formerly of Ninja High School and currently in the band Dutch, my former linemate Bruce Lynn, still clamouring for Eric the Baker, getting Rich a Guelph apple and talking to farmers about the apple-splitting trick, making our way to Eric the Baker, Friendly Rich is prolific, purple juice interruption, Adrian Celentano, sausage rolls and blueberry tarts, my guestlist, arriving at Eric’s, Rich buys a chocolate weiner, my son tries to steal some madeleine cookies, meeting Eric the Baker, the song “Penis Suitcase,” et en fin.

Related links: friendlyrich.com vishkhanna.com

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