“Good Music Will Prevail,” that is the motto we have been championing here at FILTER Magazine headquarters for 10 years. That's right, FILTER, the independently-owned avant-garde music magazine, has now entered its 10th year in print, a pretty massive milestone indeed.

Over the past ten years (2002 - 2012) FILTER Magazine has stayed true to its roots. The publication was founded on the philosophy of printing quality content about quality music, helping fans to discover artists and their stories. From the first issue, On The Dark Side of The Moon with Weezer, which hit newsstands in July 2002, to the upcoming issue 47, on-sale Feb. 17, the magazine’s unwavering dedication to guide people towards good music discovery has kept its readership growing and FILTER readers coming back for more.

So what does this mean for you, the FILTER reader? As the year rolls out, we will be revisiting certain features from every single FILTER Issue ever published including covers stories from David Bowie, Lou Reed & The Strokes, Tom Waits, Bjork and more and we will also look at where all of our Getting To Know artists are now.

10 Years of FILTER : Issue 1: On The Dark Side Of The Moon With Weezer

10 Years of FILTER: Issue #1 Revisited, Getting To Know Bright Eyes, Doves + More (July 2002)

10 Years of FILTER: Issue #2 Cover Story: Björk

10 Years of FILTER: Issue #2 Revisited, Getting To Know Interpol, Jazzanova + More (September, 2002)

10 Years of FILTER: Issue #3 Cover Story: Coldplay

10 Years of FILTER: Issue #3 Revisited, Getting To Know Clinic, Röyksopp + More (Nov/Dec, 2002)

10 Years of FILTER: Issue #4 Cover Story: The Dandy Warhols

10 Years of FILTER: Issue #4 Revisited, Getting To Know 2 Many DJs, The Coral and more (March 2003)

2012 will also feature FILTER's 50th Magazine issue, new content on the FILTER Magazine iPad App, 2012 SXSW Rainey St. takeover with four venue showcases, new Good Music Guides, Coachella Kick Off Party, Official Lollapalooza after parties, and the grandaddy of them all, the third annual Culture Collide Festival.

So be on the lookout everyone. 2012 will be an exciting year for FILTER Magazine.

Good Music Will Prevail.
 

Story continued from Part 1.

Are you always working or writing? Can you turn it off if you need to?

Sure I can. I have to. I do have a state that I live in. Which is why no one ever hears from me. [Laughs.] But this business we call show, it’s rather absurd sometimes when you really think about it, because you think you’re making stuff that’s gonna be around but you’re making popsicles that will sit on bus benches in Florida in the summer and melt. That’s what we’re making, this kind of music, this sound. And then they tell you that you’re the king of something—you’re the king of the schoolyard, king of the front seat, you’re the king of the weeds—just because you can draw really cool pictures on a dirty car with your finger, just ’cause you draw in the dirt with a stick and everyone likes what you do. None of this stuff is designed to stay. Except that you will retain some of it. The first time you heard “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.” Ah, man. They do stay with you, these musical things that you squirt into your ear. Some stay, some don’t. They either grow or they don’t.

How bout these band names now, huh? The Slacks? As soon as I hear a band that’s called The Slacks, I think they’ll probably be on the bill with The Bras, The Slippers, The Buttons, The Underwear and The Collars. Maybe it’ll be a festival. Band names.

You didn’t mess around with one of those.

I didn’t have to. I really wish I changed my name when I got started in show business though. It makes you cleaner. That’s the “me”—that’s the ventriloquist and this is the dummy. I wish I’d called myself something else. Bill Brassiere and the Sleepwalking Assassins. Beaumont Zipperhorn and the Canadian Ankle Fans. Jihad Gingerpoodle and the Shoehorn Orchestra. Just so you know the difference between you—the real you—the show, and the reality. Alvin Trickleshirt and the Belvedere Shinolas. One night only. I’m on a roll.

People talk about your benchmark albums, changes in sound: when you jump labels the sound changes, when you met Kathleen the sound changed… What got you from Real Gone to Bad As Me?

I’ll never say. I don’t know. There’s 100 things. Who knows what the ingredients for tunes are when that whole thing starts feeling like a record? Again, you want to know but you really don’t want to know, because if I told you and it wasn’t interesting, you’d go, “Ah, Jesus.” In other words, when you have the truth and you have the myth, print the myth. “Chicago” had just the right number of syllables for that song. Try Reno. Try Miami. Bern, Switzerland. Didn’t work. There’s too many or there’s not enough. This was just right, like the Three Bears. Chicago, Chicago. When you say it, it stops being a town and just sounds like a conjuring word, like abracadabra.

It was the magical solution.

It was for that moment. It’s just travelling music for immigrants. Here’s the truth: We definitely wanted to do three-minute songs, 12 of ’em. No fucking around. I tried to sustain that, to honor that. I thought it was a good idea. Now that you got CDs, you can put 19 of ’em on there, I love that. That’s not always the right idea. So, 13, that’s not bad. I lobbied for one more. Some of those songs are really long and had to be cut down. That “New Year’s Eve” song was really long. It’s about a night that went badly. So you think, “OK, how much do we tell?” Had a little to eat, Marge got food poisoning, Stan lit the sofa on fire, the dog ran away, the car got towed, our neighbors called the cops…there’s a song in there somewhere. You have to pull weeds and you have to do the dishes.

Do you know those people in the songs?

No, it’s code, remember? Protect the innocent. I’ll leave it up to you as to whether there’s a real Sergio or not because it doesn’t really matter. It’s just a song, it’s song logic. That always rules.

Less specifically, can you tell me what a “raised right man” is?

You’ll know when you get married. You’ll know that you aren’t one and you need to be, and you’re not ready. And you’ll know why there’s a sofa in the living room. You’ve not stood before God and had to explain yourself.

Do you see yourself as more of a conductor or as more of a facilitator when it comes to working with other musicians in your studio?

Maybe a little bit of a conjurer. Some of them already dance, but nobody really knows the answer to why a song’s not working. It’s like taking your pet snake to the vet. “I don’t know, Doc, he’s just been laying here for weeks. I can’t even get him to bite me. What do you think it is?” [Laughs.] And everyone is entitled to offer their opinion about what is wrong: “I don’t know, Tom, too much bass.” “Not enough bass.” Well, which is it? “Let’s start over.” “The song is shit.” “No it’s not.” You have great performances on really mediocre songs. Hey, the radio’s full of them. And vice versa. The poor performances of really great songs no one will ever hear. It has to all come together. 

Song ideas have humble beginnings. Stood up on a date, my dog died, my dad was killed in the war… You put yourself in the room with people who are known healers, known entities. Sometimes if you go in there with somebody you’ve never worked with before, something surprising happens. If everybody has already worked together before, many times you’re just gonna chase a chicken around on the beach all day, you’re tired and go hungry. Sometimes you need someone to think outside the boxes. And you gotta trust the people you go in with, just like a cast on a play or a movie. “Let’s get him, man, Harry Dean Stanton, he should be the king! Let’s get Louise Brooks, have her be the queen. Let’s start there.” I work with great people, I know I do because I have an instinct about ’em. Les Claypool, great. Ribot, great. Flea, great. Dave, great. Keith, great. Casey Waits, great. Charlie Musselwhite, indispensable. Charlie brings about 600 harmonicas to a gig. “Jesus, Charlie, we can’t use all of those!” But he knows: If you don’t bring it, you’ll definitely need it. That’s true of every session.

I don’t know how much people want to know about what goes on inside the studio. I don’t even know how much these guys want to be known. Some of ’em, they’ll love to tell you, make shit up. Or tell you what really happened. Fact is I make ’em sign a…whaddya call it?

Non-disclosure agreement?

Yeah, right! They’ll start calling their high school history teacher, sendin’ pictures all over the place… It’s like, this was a private affair here; what happens in here stays in here. ’Course it’s never true, but we’ll all pretend.

That’s the fun part with music, if you really do let yourself go, you do find something. “The bass player had to leave by 9, so there’s no bass on this song.” Well, hey, it was better! Again, I still think we’re drawing in the dirt with a stick. Which is part of the excitement of it, too; there’s a certain energy in the room when you’re doing that. We’re not inventing the wheel here; there’s plenty of wheels, we’re getting the benefit of them. But you have to feel that what you’re doing is somewhat unique, even though there’s really nothing new under the sun. Read Ecclesiastes and you’ll learn all about that. Everything’s being borrowed, forgotten, made-up, left out, cannibalized; everybody does that, it’s that kind of work. In that “Bad As Me” song, when I stop and do that spoken-word thing… “Oh man, that’s Screamin’ Jay Hawkins all day, man!” So what? It’s a tribute to Screamin’ Jay. He’s gone, tip your hat to him. 50 children. So sometimes it’s just that.

Code or not, there seem to be a few hints toward recognizing some sort of mortality here. Or even immortality, like “Last Leaf.” Is that a theme you find creeping in more and more?

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Sometimes the last leaf is just the last leaf. It’s fall. And there’s one more leaf on that tree and he’s not going.

Can you envision reaching a point where you won’t want to do this anymore?

Oh, well, I don’t know, yeah, sure, probably. I need to move on to different things. Who knows where it’s taking you? If you knew exactly what you were doing, it wouldn’t be any fun, would it? You wind up drawing giraffes using Tabasco sauce on the back of coasters with a nail. I could sell those for big money.

I’m sure you could, Tom. Here’s my last question: What does it sound like in your house when you’re the only one awake?

It’s very rare that this place is empty, or quiet, and I’m up. But I do find it fascinating, the things that you notice when you’re trying to be so quiet—if you’re trying to make some eggs at three in the morning, and you get in that drawer with all the pots and pans, what it sounds like. I try to think of that when I’m in the studio, because it is like that, you’re isolating sounds, you’re taking them and putting them in the place where there’s just sound, and then they’re somewhat disembodied, and it’s an interesting thing, what the microphones do—things that happen only because it’s so quiet that you notice and then you want to keep. When the orchestra is tuning up, many times it’s the most interesting moment in the show. They had no idea it was gonna be that exciting, they didn’t even know they were making music. So if you bring in musicians and they’re goofing around getting ready to play, many times you have to pay attention to what they’re doing before they start playing with a capital “P.” They have no idea how interesting what they were doing before they knew they were doing anything was. Acting is the same, you’re kind of catching wildlife.

You gotta get one of those little military-engineered flies to really capture it.

They’re getting smaller and smaller, those things. I have relatives in the C.I.A., that’s how I know all that. Uncle Bill. He risks his life every time he calls me.

And you told it to a man with a tape recorder.

Oh my god. Now I’m gonna have to make you promise that you’ll never print any of this. Alright, this is the last question I’ve got for you: There’s one line that is said more than any other line in the entire history of cinema. Do you know what that line is?

I’m gonna go with… “What’ll it be?”

“What’ll it be?” No, no. That’s pretty good, though. You mean, guy’s walking into a bar and the bartender says, “What’ll it be?” That’s pretty good! It’s probably in the running, but it’s not the one. I can’t give you the prize.

So, what is the number one most-spoken line in cinema?

Here it comes, you ready? “Let’s get outta here.” That’s it. Let’s get out of here.     F

“This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
—from John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

 What if it was all true? What if all the stories about the one-armed ship-captain dwarves, incarcerated Minnesotan hookers, dog-hating wild arsonists, bunker-buddies named Sergio with bad coughs, suicidal tramps and string-bean gypsies and out-of-work dancers and transgendered uncles and omniscient ringmasters and orphans and butchers and bricklayers and thieves, what if they were all real? What about the guy sitting on the barstool next to you, the chiseled one with the sandpaper voice and the bowler on backwards, sipping his secret elixir from a brown paper bag, spinning these yarns… Do you think he really knows karate, voodoo too? What if it was all true?

But, though, what if it wasn’t?

According to Tom Waits, it doesn’t matter one way or the other. Print the myth, respect the mystery, protect the innocent—these are the truths he lives by. As he’ll say more than once on this day, the ingredients of songs are code. Besides, according to him, songs are all just tributes anyway—they’re borrowed, stolen, cannibalized, forgotten, made-up, left out, mis-recollected, daydreamt and shape-shifted. So what? It doesn’t seem to get in the way of our enjoyment.

The Waits Legend is well known by now: the early years in Southern California, perfecting his imperfect barroom crooner act with the drunken pianos and unsavory characters of 1970s Los Angeles; meeting his future wife and writing-and-producing partner, Kathleen Brennan, while working on songs for Francis Ford Coppola’s One from the Heart in 1980; their imminent union and how it changed the course of his artistry from lounge act to sonic conquistador; the births of their three children and his retreat into family life; his infrequent but illuminating forays into acting, stage musical composition and performances of his own songs around the world; his insistent compulsion to do things his own way. As an artist, but also as a businessman, performer and—to the best of his ability—as a citizen, Waits maintains complete control of his image and output, whether leaving a major label for an independent or deciding when, where and even if he plays live concerts. It’s not often these days that he chooses to step out of the shadows, down from the metaphorical mountain on his small patch of Northern California land in Sonoma County, to head back into the light. But when he does, he certainly makes his presence known, leaving a dizzying trail of creativity in his wake.

For Waits, even a place as seemingly soul-baring and spotlit as a stage can still be a stronghold. In Waits’ world, a translucent shield extends downward from every proscenium. A phone line contains a filter, his studio players sign non-disclosure agreements, magicians stay mute. To him, we live in a time—sadly—when spy cameras buzz around us always, when information leaks are trophies to be won. To announce his new album, Bad As Me, his first original material in seven years, Waits hosted an online “private” listening party, scripted to be thwarted by a call from the record company: “We have a situation here,” he tells the camera, turning down the music. “Apparently there’s no such thing as ‘private’ anymore. It’s an Internet thing.” It’s a plea to the rest of us to not spoil the surprise, to not betray the wonders of wondering; the irony that the video was itself a leak of information on the Internet was deliciously intended. Is he paranoid, or simply prudent?

In the clip, the solution Waits comes up with, naturally, is a shakedown, one-on-one playback session in a dilapidated old car, with “BAD AS ME OCT. 25 ’11” scribbled on the rear windshield, the singer himself behind the wheel as watchdog. The satisfied smirk and wink he gives the camera says it all: His way, or the highway—though, of course, they’re often one and the same. As he sings on Bad As Me’s “Pay Me”: “The next stage that I am on / It will have wheels.”

The songwriter’s quest to be remembered in this fleeting life never ends, but to Waits, it’s all just finger drawings on a dirty car. “Don’t you feel like that sometimes?” he asks. “You ever think you’re writing about stuff that is kind of like weather…drawing in the dirt with a stick?” On one hand, here’s a man at the age of 61 who’s been singing, writing, performing, making a go of it for over 40 years—and he’s still putting out the best music of his career, his way. On the other, here’s a man at the age of 61 trying to come to terms with the idea that everything he’s done thus far may hang under the branches of impermanence. On the subject of age, he drops this dime, with a new stress for each decade: “29 was rough. 39 was rough. 49 was rough. 59 was rough! Those border towns, those are tough.” It’s reflective, sure, but also sort of triumphant; he’s still here, bad as ever. There are songs about mortality on Bad As Me—“I’m the last leaf on the tree,” he declares on “Last Leaf”—he knows he’s going, someday, but has no plans to go quietly.

If Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs signaled a magnificent new direction for Waits in the ’80s, and 1999’s Mule Variations and 2004’s Real Gone proved that not only had he not hung up his apron but instead was just beginning to really cook, Bad As Me is the supreme work of an artist wise enough to pinpoint exactly what he does best, pair it with the brilliance of those talented friends and family members he’s collected over the years, and scale it all down into concise three-minute bursts of beauty and delirium. They elicit the appeal of a Corvette with the efficiency of a Corolla. The opening horn and banjo peel out of “Chicago” sets a frenetic pace that returns a few times throughout the album, including the blues stomps of “Satisfied” and “Raised Right Men” and the screamin’ voodoo crunch of the title track; other numbers, like “Pay Me,” “Back in the Crowd” and “New Year’s Eve,” ring with sweet, sad, slow sincerity and gorgeous guitar work. But the true star of the show, as always, remains Waits’ voice; among his incomparable talents, his mastery of that interior instrument remains his greatest. There’s simply nothing on Earth like it; the metaphors one could use to describe its variant incarnations on Bad As Me alone could outnumber those written by an entire semester’s worth of university poetry students.

When, at the album’s apex on the furious, cacophonic war-lament of “Hell Broke Luce,” Waits—amidst napalm blasts of guitar riffs, “Taps” trumpets and honest-to-god machine gun fire—barks, “Listen to the general, every goddamn word,” it’s a snide attack on those who give political orders, sure, but it also mirrors the way he makes his songs. “A record’s not a democracy,” he says. “Not in my book.” Still, he lightens up when on the subject of working with Brennan, and with those trustworthy few they invited into the holy studio to record: Keith Richards; Flea; Waits’ longtime bandleader Marc Ribot; David Hidalgo of Los Lobos; Les Claypool; the harmonica master Charlie Musselwhite; Waits and Brennan’s own son, Casey, on drums; and a select few others. “You put yourself in the room with known healers,” he says. “I work with great people, I know I do.”

Referring to himself as a conjurer, he rockets off on tangents about the origin of why we use the word “man” to refer to one another and his own “false” family history, gives pop-quizzes about movie trivia and invents outrageous band names at the drop of a hat. Tom Waits exists to entertain. Throughout our phone interview he shifts into characters effortlessly and without warning, holding communion with himself, laughing loudly and often, daring me to give chase. The lights may go down, but he’s always onstage.

When he assures me early in our conversation that “the truth is overrated,” he means it almost as a word of warning, as if to say, I’m going to tolerate your inquiries, but I’m not gonna play you straight. Trust me, it’s better for us both this way. When at one point Waits qualifies what’s about to follow with, “Here’s the truth,” are we fools to believe him? And does it really matter anyway? Sometimes, to understand an artist who says he feels most like himself when at a matinee, the only thing you can do is step right up and get your ticket.

Austin City Limits will be airing their next installment of ACL TV via PBS featuring Chicago natives Wilco (FILTER Magazine Cover alum Issue #25). Tune in Saturday February 4th to watch the  celebrated sextet play tunes from their latest record The Whole Love and others from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and more. You never know, you might catch a guest appearance by Nick Lowe! Check your local listings for the airing of ACL TV's productions aired via PBS. 

To catch up on the past aired episodes of ACL TV for performances from highly acclaimed artists such as Fleet Foxes, Coldplay, Arcade Fire and mor e visit Here.

Wilco at ACL: Behind the Scenes "War On War" from Jonathan Jackson on Vimeo.

Your week is busy and we know that. So rather than put everything that we on the FILTER front have posted to our website into one long recap list, we wanted to just pluck a few gems from the bunch for you to revisit. These are the cream of the crop.

10 Years of FILTER: Issue #4 Cover Story: The Dandy Warhols
Some interviews are standard Q+As and some are just plain old hang-outs, our interview in FILTER Issue #4 with The Dandy Warhols falls somewhere between hang-out and tell-all.

OBSESSIVE COMPULSIONS: FILTER’s Weekly Picks

This week's FILTER Staff OBSESSIVE COMPULSIONS picks include Sleigh Bells, Sharon Van Etten, Happy Socks, Kevin Smith and more. Click through to read why.

10 Years of FILTER: Issue #4 Revisited, Getting To Know 2 Many DJs, The Coral and more (March 2003)
Getting To Know is a section in the magazine that serves as a good gauge for our predictions of greatness. In FILTER Issue #4, released February/March 2003, we introduced 2 Many DJs, The Datsuns, The Microphones, Turin Brakes, Muggs, and The Coral. Here is a brief look at those artists, then and now.

In The Bin: Permanent Records’ Gnarliest Rock Records of 2011 (FILTER Exclusive)

FILTER and Permanent Records have joined forces to presents a new monthly feature for us which will feature them doing what they do best, talk about music and reccomend some new jams. Every month a new "In The Bin" feature will hit the FILTER site and will cover new vinyl and bands that have come through the Permanent Records bins (get it?) and that is about all the rules we have them.

Attention all Sasquatch followers - the Sasquatch! Music Festival has officially announced their lineup for 2012! Taking place at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington Memorial Day weekend (May 25-28), Sasquatch! Music Festival has made a mark amongst the ever growing roster of music festival around the world by conjuring up a most unique experience out in the woods of Washingston.

Enough with information you might already know, let's get to the good stuff. Artists on the lineup for Sasquatch! Music Festival 2012 include the following:

Today M.I.A. has premiered a new video via Youtube to accompany her brand new track, "Bad Girls". Shot in Ouarzazate, Morocco, M.I.A. teamed up with director Romain Gavras who also worked with her for the track “Born Free” and with JUSTICE for their release “Stress”. The young female rapper says a few words on the video,"It was dope to  have so many people from so many different backgrounds speaking so many different languages come together to create something that we believed in.”

Check out the video and watch the car trick out the roads like it was any other play-day.

Cheap Girls, as a band, are not girls, nor do they come off as cheap. Let's just put that out there. They are actually three Midwestern gents (Adam Aymor and brothers Ben and Ian Graham) who play big guitar-based rock 'n' roll, most notably on their upcoming third album, Giant Orange, produced by Against Me!'s Tom Gabel.  

The video treatment for new single "Ruby" finds the band and friends in a wonderfully cluttered antique store as Ruby comes to life for the imaginatively romantic shop owner. Fans of The Hold Steady or The Lemonheads will find plenty to love in this pop-infused rock anthem, while thrift store aficionados will envy the plentiful eye candy of the setting. Watch the full video as a FILTER Premiere below, and catch the band as they head out on a headlining tour this spring including a run through SXSW (full dates below). Giant Orange will be released February 21 via Rise Records. 

Cheap Girls' Tour Dates
February
03 – Columbus, OH – The Basement  *
04 – Toledo, OH – Frankie’s  *
17 – Lansing, MI – Mac’s Bar (Giant Orange release party)  
March
01 – Cleveland, OH – The Grog Shop  #
02 – Buffalo, NY – The Mohawk Place  #
03 – Boston, MA – The Middle East (upstairs)  #
04 – Asbury Park, NJ – Asbury Lanes  #
06 – Brooklyn, NY – The Knitting Factory  #
07 – Oneonta, NY – The American Legion  #
08 – New Haven, CT – Lily’s Pad  #
09 – Philadelphia, PA – The Fire  #
10 – Richmond, VA – The Camel  #
11 – Louisville, KY – Cahoots  #
12 – St. Louis, MO – The Firebird  #
16 – Austin, TX – SXSW
17 – Austin, TX – SXSW
18 – Shreveport, LA – The Media Star Entertainment Hall  #
20 – Lawrence, KS – The Replay Lounge  #  

* = w/ Smoking Popes
# = w/ The Sidekicks

This week, Minneapolis-based Now, Now released their Dead Oaks Digital EP via iTunes, featuring the new unreleased B-side "Shifting." Stream the track below, courtesy of Trans- Records. The digital EP is a great introduction to the trio, laying out all the cards on what the band can offer, one dimension being sublte bone-chilling dark indie-pop as found in the b-side tune. Available on iTunes, the 3 song EP includes "Dead Oaks," and "School Friends" from their forthcoming sophomore album Threads (3/6, Trans-Records), as well as the album b-side "Shifting."

Now, Now: Shifting by Trans Records

Make sure to catch Now, Now have on their spring tour dates including gigs with The Naked And Famous in Los Angeles and New York as well as a few headlining shows in early April (see dates below).

 

You might recognize these guys from our latest FILTER Magazine Issue #46. Real Estate getting back to it for the Spring, gearing up for their tour in the Spring in preparation for their Coachella sets. Don't worry, they're giving the whole U.S. some love. See below for the Spring tour dates.

Find out some more on the band in FILTER's Getting to Know magazine feature in Issue #46, Here.

For our review of Real Estate's latest album, head on over here.


LIVE TOUR DATES:

4/03    Philadelphia, PA    First Unitarian Church
4/04    Baltimore, MD       Ottobar
4/05    Richmond, VA        Strange Matter
4/06    Raleigh, NC         Hopscotch Presents at Lincoln Theatre
4/07    Athens, GA          40 Watt Club
4/08    Oxford, MS          Cats Purring Dude Ranch
4/09    Little Rock, AR     Rev Room
4/10    Dallas, TX          Club Dada
4/11    Austin, TX          The Mohawk
4/15    Indio, CA           Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
4/20    Seattle, WA         The Neptune
4/22    Indio, CA           Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
4/23    Santa Cruz, CA      Catalyst Atrium
4/24    San Francisco, CA   Great American Music Hall
4/25    Reno, NV            Holland Project
4/26    Salt Lake City, UT  Urban Lounge
4/27    Englewood, CO       Gothic Theatre
4/28    Lawrence, KS        Bottleneck
4/29    St. Louis, MO       Plush
4/30    Columbus, OH        Newport Music Hall
5/01    Harrisburg, PA      Appalachian Brewing Co.

 

Bonnie "Prince" Billy has just announced the release of the new single "Time To Be Clear" out on Drag City on Feb. 28. One four-minute album track plus two four-minute non-album on two sides of a 7" single, "Time to be Clear" from the album Wolfroy Goes to Town, introduces avid listeners and fans to two non-LP songs "Whipped" and "Out-of-Mind." Look out for this two-song 7" called 'The B-Sides for "Time to be Clear"'  and "Time to be Clear" this month. If you liked  Wolfroy Goes to Town, you are sure to enjoy the new single "Time To Be Clear" (available digitally) and 7" b-sides release (vinyl).

These songs were recorded with the suddenly-ubiquitous Bonny crew of Ben Boye, Van Campbell, Emmett Kelly, Danny Kiely and Angel Olson. Both sides were recorded with David Ferguson, who brings his strong roots and subtle flair to the mix. The cover drawing was supplied by the great American artist, publisher and aesthete, Sammy Harkham.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy, The b-sides for Time To Be Clear (Drag City), avaiable: Feb. 28, 2012.

Track List:

1. Time To Be Clear 
2. Whipped
3. Out-Of-Mind

Bonnie Prince Billy - Black Captain from Black Cab Sessions on Vimeo.

At some point or another, you will most likely find yourself in a new town, city, state, even country with no idea where to go or what to do to waste time. Well have no fear, FILTER is here to help.

In Your Town turns the FILTER website into a virtual "what's what" guide to specific places around the world, but rather than us telling you what you should check out, we enlist the help of artists from those specific area. We might have the best taco spot in Tokyo, the best place to get your hair braided in Ontario, the cleanest toilet in London, there are no rules. The only thing we can promise is that these guides are for the true travelers.

Got a place in mind? Let us know and we will get an artist to cover it.

Our first contribution to the In Your Town feature comes from Nic Snyder and Josh Sickels of French Kiss Records artist, 1,2,3. These guys give you the scoop on Pittsburgh, PA like where to get some pizza, the best bar for cheap drinks and most importantly, a kick-ass water park.

Nic's Picks:

Jerry's Records (2136 Murray Avenue  Pittsburgh, PA 15217)
Why: It's by far the biggest used record store in Pittsburgh. It's as cheap as any vinyl collector could possibly ask for. It comes equipt with listening stations in case a particular mystery band's artwork strikes your fancy. And the beer-sweat smelling old heads who work there are more enthusiastic than they are dicks. Some say Millvale's Attic Record Store is better, but that remains to be proven.

Gooski's (3117 Brereton Street  Pittsburgh, PA 15219)
Why: Everyone's favorite dive. Cheap ass drinks, the best jukebox in Pittsburgh, and the atmosphere is beautifully dark and dinged up. Last time I was there the Black Lips were a couple rounds deep into a ping-pong tournament.

The Castle (???)
Why: It's one of Pittsburgh's only after hour bars. Basically every overly drunk sceney and seedy person in the Bloomfield/Lawrenceville area looking to keep it going past 2 a.m. will be there until the door guy, Buttercup, kicks them out. Only thing is, it's location is a secret and even if you do track it down, you gotta know someone to get in.



Josh's Picks:




Mineo's Pizza House 2128 Murray Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15217
Why: Best pizza in Pittsburgh. Best pizza anywhere, really. OK, Di Fara's in Brooklyn is great too, but Mineo's is a different breed. It's not thick or thin crust, and the amount of cheese they put on the pizza is very egregious. It's greasy as hell, but quite amazing, and the crust is unlike most pizza around, its mostly a cornmeal crust, and is kinda chewy like bread. Definitely a Pittsburgh must.





Mount Washington Lookout 100 Grandview Ave. Pittsburgh, PA
Why: The best view of the city. Pittsburgh has some pretty remarkable architecture, as well as the most bridges in the world, giving us the nickname "The City of Bridges." 446, to be exact. We have two rivers that run on opposite sides of the city that form into a point, to make the "three rivers." Just an overall great look, and something I always show out of towners when they visit.




Sandcastle Water Park 1000 Sandcastle Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15120
Why: Pittsburgh's premier water park. Pittsburgh's only water park, actually. On the subject of Pittsburgh "amusement" parks in general, most would say Kennywood here, America's oldest, but since I'm a water park enthusiast, I gotta go with Sandcastle. It's located directly on the Monongahela River, amidst a background of green hills and industrial wasteland. Quite the view. Try the Blue Tubalooba. Awesome enclosed slide that gets pitch black for about ten seconds while flying up and down walls at a 90 degree angle. Gnarly.
 

Alright, we're fans of Gotye and Kimbra - this we know. A few months ago we gave early and well-deserved love to Gotye and Kimbra's collaboration for the track "Somebody That I Used to Know." This was shortly followed up by featuring the Aussie multi-instrumentalist in Issue #46 of FILTER Magazine, and praising the New Zealand songstress in our SXSW Buzz-o-meter. Now, the two artists hit the stage for a U.S. television debut of the chart-topping hit on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Watch below as Gotye and Kimbra feed the audience's appetite for a live performance of "Somebody That I Used to Know."

Read the piece on Gotye from Issue #46 in full, Here.
Get a quick play-by-play on Kimbra in our SXSW Buzz-o-meter feature,  Here.

Portlanders Kevin O'Connor and Lisa Molinaro are Talkdemonic. Currently signed to Glacial Pace Recordings, these two have been known to crossover the bounderies of percussion and analog sounds, stirring up what is the distinctive gritty and textured tunes. Having released their latest, Ruins, back in October 2011, Talkdemonic shed some light on their busy work with this film, a FILTER Exclusive. Directed by Brian Vernor, this short reel canned impression from first sight. Vernor first encountered Portland's Talkdemonic their Cafe Du Nord show in San Francisco, leaving with a great impression of the set and band themselves. Entering the band's world of the "practice space" allowed this project to conceptualize itself as a dream-like visitation on what this rock duo tinker and tweak everyday. Watch the short film by Brian Vernor of Talkdemonic below.

Like what you see? Catch Talkdemonic on the road on the following dates (see below).