Tag: Nation of Ulysses

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News Podcast

Ep. #259: Savak’s Sohrab Habibion

Sohrab Habibion is a talented guitarist, singer, graphic designer, and engineer based in Brooklyn, New York. He has played in wonderful punk rock bands in the past, including Edsel and the Obits. His new band is called Savak and features members of Holy Fuck, Nation of Ulysses, The Cops, and his fellow Obit, Greg Simpson. Savak’s excellent debut album is called Best of Luck in Future Endeavours, it’s out now via Comedy Minus One Records, and the band has started playing shows close to home. Here, Sohrab and I discuss the last time he was on the show discussing the end of Obits, the origin of Savak, the Obits overlap, two drummers, Savak’s social infrastructure, a band full of designers, Michael Jaworski, the last Obits material and the first Savak material, splitting singing with Michael, kissing someone off with ‘best of luck in future endeavours,’ hope and suspicion, melancholia, the relationship between under and overground culture, things might be bigger than they seem, precious time and urgency, DIY punk culture and DIV reality TV, time management and sleeping, making the most of things while you can, transitional decades and adapting to life, magical musicians, assertiveness within the work of Savak, the state of the union, the conversations that are taking place within the rise of Donald Trump (and Hillary Clinton) and what they might mean, musicians who feel sheepish talking about politics, how knowing things and feeling things are different, sound bytes and anti-intellectualism, President Barack Obama’s recent speech about how “it’s not cool to not know stuff,” pretending to be an everyman to screw over the everyman, news and informational satire, impactful songs, Brendan Canty’s new band Super!Silver!Haze, Jerry Busher’s new band Sun Wolf, Puff Pieces, tour plans, the song “Early Western Traders,” and then we each went on to our own respective future endeavours.

Related links: savakband.com comedyminusone.com vishkhanna.com

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savak

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News Podcast

Ep. #168: Dan Boeckner of Operators

Dan Boeckner is a multi-talented musician and singer who originally hails from British Columbia. After forming a short-lived band called Atlas Strategic on the west coast, Boeckner eventually moved to Montreal where he co-founded the esteemed and popular bands, Wolf Parade and Handsome Furs, both of which garnered loyal audiences before ceasing to exist. Boeckner subsequently lived in California for a spell and formed Divine Fits with members of Spoon and New Bomb Turks, garnering strong reviews for their 2012 debut album, A Thing Called Divine Fits. His current focus is an excellent, electronic-based rock band called Operators, who have released EP1 and a single called “Ecstasy in My House” in recent months. Both records are available now via Last Gang, Operators have been touring across North America and here, Dan and I discuss finding a place in Montreal and BBQ, Sam Brown the drummer, landlords and landladies and musicians, switching from audio to video, being a loner and starting a buncha new bands/relationships, obsessing over Eastern Europe, living in an atomic strike zone during the Cold War, Bulgaria and Russia, the Serbian punk band Malfunction, NoMeansNo, Unwound, Nation of Ulysses, playing for the New Pornographers’ audience, re-establishing your artistic self in a whole new band, how people don’t always care about music made by the same people in a band they love, making new fans, analog and electro music, getting into Sonic Youth as a kid, name dropping good bands, M Blanket, Frankie Sparo, Witchies, Dan’s early band Say Uncle, contemplating the 1990s, recording upwards of 15 Operators songs at Hotel2Tango last year, duking it out on the road, hooks, loud louder loudest and pop songs, “Eye in the Sky” and other weirdly dark, minor key songs, what’s going on with Wolf Parade, the not-as-fast-as-it-seemed ascent of Wolf Parade, turning down The Late Show with David Letterman three times, Divine Fits will be back, the song “Start Again,” and that was it.

Related links: operatorsmusic.com lastgangentertainment.com vishkhanna.com

Dan Boeckner

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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

hamiltonleithauser

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