Folk bands are slowly going the way of the emo band — cookie-cutter, predictable, uninspired, and inevitably becoming a parody of themselves because music is a business and the market dictates that consumers will always want more of what’s popular. Even in indie circles, and folk music circles, bastions of liberal free-thinking and stereotypically capitalism-wary hippies; music as a business (eventually) must become a reality unless you intend upon giving all your music away for free.

All that to say this: The Beggar Folk fall nicely into the afore-mentioned folk music genre, however their music doesn’t seem to follow suit with the folk status quo.

I believe The Beggar Folk’s music when it plays. These are ballads and hymns, carved from trees and moulded from soil. This music demands your attention and effortlessly passes any authenticity tests. It conjures up what real Americana and country music should conjure. Pastoral scenery. Familial security. Natural beauty. Faith. Stillness. It almost seems silly describing it because of the many ways it’s been self-indulgently parroted in an attempt to sell records. The Beggar Folk are the real deal.

01. Who are you?

We’re a band called The Beggar Folk out of Lancaster, PA. At this point, the band is made up of my wife and I (Josh and Trista Lamb). We’ve been married for 4 years, but the band has only been a part of us for the last 2 years. We chose the name, The Beggar Folk, to set out on our music careers as “lesser” people. It’s important to us to always remain humble and look to serve the interest of those around us over ourselves. Beggars aren’t often in positions of power, nor looking to be served.

02. What do you sound like?

We sound like a man sitting in the woods. Our music is very simple and stripped down, focused more on our story and purpose than on fitting into the world around us. Most of our songs speak about what it means to be most human and most holy.

But then again, maybe you just wanted to know that we’re mellow folk music and a bit old-timey. I play guitar and my wife and I both sing.

03. What do friends say you sound like?

We’ve heard from quite a few folks lately that we sound like Bonnie Prince Billy married to Emmylou Harris.

04. Full-time musicians or wage slaves?

After two years of working part-time jobs to support ourselves, we are finally full-time musicians! We still have a lot of work ahead, but at least it’s working for something we believe in. We love waking up and knowing our job is writing, performing, and meeting the most wonderful folks this world has to offer!

05. Current career highlight?

At this point, I think our career highlight has to be our album release party back in January. It was the first time we released a record and most of our shows had solely consisted of our friends coming out to hear us. We were only expecting around 50-60 people, but we had 130 people show up, cram shoulder-to-shoulder, and share the evening with us! It was honestly the first time that we realized people were actually in into our music, and not just out of politeness. I’m not sure why, but having fans has been a tough thing for us to accept. It’s both a very humbling and honouring thing at the same time.

06. Favourite decade for music?

Not sure what decade we’re currently in, but we love the indie/folk music that’s coming out now. Fleet Foxes, Denison Witmer, Gillian Welch, The Welcome Wagon…so much good writing and so many good places to find it!

07. Best mood for songwriting?

We usually write best when in a sombre mood. We tend to write only about things that weigh heavy on our hearts, so it’s rare that I write a goofy song with a huge smile on my face.

08. The last song you/the band wrote?

The last song we wrote is called “I Am Going To Build That Kingdom” and it’s a sort of hymn. We’ve never had a sing-along song, but I suppose there’s a first time for everything. We’ve been teaching people the chorus before we play and having them join us during the song. I have to admit, engaging with the crowd and singing out together is one of the best feelings in the world.

09. Which 3 musicians would you invite round for dinner?

If we could invite any 3 musicians over for dinner, we’d have to choose Rosie Thomas and her alter-ego Sheila Saputo to tell us all jokes and set the table, Gillian Welch to say grace and pour the drinks, and Chris Thile to do the dishes.

10. Worst gig ever played?

We played at place called ______ up in Spring City, PA. The announcer made fun of us by calling us the “self-proclaimed” finest folk duo in PA and rolling his eyes when introducing us. Even though we brought out nearly as many people as the local headliner, they had the audacity to ask us to pay them for not bringing out enough people! We just walked away…

11. Favourite band anecdote?

Our merch girl and opening act might have accidentally fed someone’s dog an entire bar of chocolate…and left without telling the owners. Again, she might have.

12. Five favourite albums?

1) Denison Witmer- Little Flowers
2) Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever Ago
3) Fleet Foxes- Fleet Foxes
4) Great Lake Swimmers- Lost Channels
5) Rosie Thomas- If Songs Could Be Held

13. Your biggest rock and roll fantasy?

Wild, I know, but we would love to make enough money to pay off our school loans.

14. Goals for the next 12 months?

Tour, find some full-time band mates, record a new album, play loads of festivals, and get booked on a late night talk show…and maybe get booked on a folksy cruise ;)

15. First time listeners, where should they start?

First time listeners should head over to www.thebeggarfolk.com, click on the first track, and just listen straight through while reading the lyrics. Then, I’d recommend hosting a house show for us!

Could it be true that the end of a beloved and highly regarded band came down to a simple “a funny thing happened while putting together our career retrospective”?

How many bands, when faced with a monumental back catalogue of music and memories, reach the realisation that they have achieved all, and a hell of a lot more, than they ever hoped for? To disband in such a fashion shows an immense amount of respect for their fans, their legacy and their friendship, and is something every band of their stature should stop to consider. R.E.M. quite rightly could've gone on forever, but the real talent lies in knowing when to stop.

It’s something of a prerequisite to contribute to Webcuts that you have at one time or another been a fan of R.E.M. Actually that's not true, we'll take anybody, but it is no small coincidence that many people who's taste in music we respect happen to be fall into this category. When putting together this tribute, the Webcuts collective decided to take a look at each of their 15 albums and select a track that for us, showed why R.E.M. were one of the last truly great rock n’ roll bands of the 20th Century.

We hope you enjoy.

"Perfect Circle" (1983) “Perfect Circle” was a track impossible to ignore, purposely placed to close out Murmur‘s flawless first side (ending the album with the track would've been milking it). Of several cornerstone moments on the record ("Radio Free Europe", "Talk About The Passion"), it was one that lingered long after the needle left the groove. Written by drummer Bill Berry (as Stipe was often want to point out), "Perfect Circle" added another room to R.E.M.'s growing house of immaculate song, the haunting piano figure eliciting feelings of nostalgia and melancholy, with Stipe's tender vocals wrapping a neat bow around it. (CS)

“Harborcoat” (1984) If Murmur was an enigmatic debut, Reckoning only deepened the mystery. The production became crisper, the guitars janglier, but the songs remained off-kilter. Michael Stipe was still singing in mumbled riddles, but there was something achingly compelling about the way he sang them. Opener “Harborcoat” is a fable of a pop song, its tune irresistible and its meaning opaque. The band’s energy is nothing short of a phenomenon. How can you watch them dance and lurch across the stage and not grin at this cohort of misfits creating something so unique, so sublime? (NG)

"Life And How To Live It" (1985) Fables, by the band’s own admission, was a difficult album to make yet it's only in the discordant opening rumble of "Feeling Gravitys Pull" that you feel any tension. If push comes to shove, this is (IMHO) their finest hour -- "Driver 8", "Maps And Legends", "Green Grow The Rushes" all reside here, and so too "Life And How To Live It". Based on a true story about a schizophenic man who divided his house in two to suit his personalities, "Life And How To Live It" is R.E.M. in manic full-flight rock n’ roll mode. (CS)

“Fall On Me” (1986) It was around Lifes Rich Pageant that Stipe’s voice began to rise above the other instruments, asserting itself as a force. R.E.M. weren’t yet the stadium sensation they would become, but “Fall On Me” has the roots of an anthem: “Buy the sky and sell the sky/And lift your arms up to the sky.” It’s almost a ballad, almost a prayer. (It’s also worth nothing that Matt Berninger, lead singer of The National, has cited this song as his favourite of all time). (NG)

“Finest Worksong” (1987) “The time to rise has been engaged,” sings Stipe on what would be R.E.M.’s last IRS records release and the beginning of arguably their best. The tone shifted from the happier Lifes Rich Pageant to the militant, call-to-arms of Document. Everything got very serious, very quickly, and there were kiss-offs for everyone from ex-lovers (“The One I Love”) to the state of art and pop culture (“It’s The End of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”). This album, and song in particular, would serve as a mighty catalyst for R.E.M.’s transformation from sweet 80’s jangle-poppers to the more ambitious, highly-political movement of their iconic 90’s alt-rock. (JL)

“Walk Unafraid” (1998) The retirement of drummer Bill Berry caused something of a mid-life crisis. Having always been a democracy, R.E.M. didn’t know how to proceed without one of the founding members. Up is, as a result, a timid, nervous album, rife with attempts at new sonic directions. “Walk Unafraid” is unabashedly tender, a messy piece of noise-pop in which Stipe baldly lays out his fears for all to see. Peter Buck puts the E-bow to fantastic use, and Stipe’s lyrics, though they lack the subtlety of the band’s early years, are resonant and powerful: “They claim to walk unafraid/I’ll be clumsy instead/Oh my love me/Or leave me/High”. (NG)

“I’ll Take The Rain” (2001) Some people argue that R.E.M. lost relevance once Bill Berry left the band, and they do have a point, if only a convenient patsy to point the finger at. In truth, the creative rot began to set in with Reveal. It’s the sound of a once-great band plateauing. The singles (“Imitation Of Life”, “Reno”) fit the buoyant jangled mould, but elsewhere was a widening absence of merited song. “I’ll Take The Rain” is one of Reveal‘s saving graces. It can be disheartening to hear R.E.M. so obviously resort to the power ballad, but if you excuse the lazy metaphors it’s easy enough to fall under its charm. Tacked toward the end of an album, “I’ll Take The Rain” was R.E.M.’s way of saying “thank you for getting this far”. (CS)

“The Outsiders” (2004) Let’s be honest: though R.E.M. has never made a bad album, Around The Sun is undoubtedly their worst. It lacks direction and purpose, falls into the same pitfalls as Up and Reveal while mostly treading water on their successes. “The Outsiders” is an attempt at something arty and new, a subtly accented ballad ending in a rapped verse (performed on the album by Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest). Astoundingly, it is a triumph, hazy and haunting, proof that even at their worst, R.E.M. are one of the greats. (NG)

“Living Well Is The Best Revenge” (2008) It seemed as if Stipe and company were determined not to make a record that could be easily dismissed with 2008’s Accelerate. Perhaps the album’s opening cut “Living Well Is The Best Revenge” hinted at that, despite it and most of the rest of the album being overtly targeted at the current political regime and the state of the nation. The call-to-arms of Document was alive and well, and the music flowed freely through this. The way “Finest Worksong” invited its listener to rise up against the oppressor, “Living Well” does the same, with an even mightier fist and rockier hook. Accelerate is about as close as R.E.M. has ever come to producing a punk record, and despite it lacking some of the extroverted elements of one, its formula of speaking out against “the man” and its brief 35 minute length suggest it may be more tongue-in-cheek punk, something much more apt for the band. (JL)

“Mine Smell Like Honey” (2011) It feels apt to end things with a dumb but fun rock n’ roll song, one that feels like we’ve almost come full circle to the early days of R.E.M.. “Dig a hole/dig it deeper/climb a mountain/climb it steeper”. There’s no insight to be gained here. It’s just one big amped up harmony-chasing gallop, with all three members weighing in and enjoying every second of it. In hindsight, Collapse Into Now was the perfect album for R.E.M. to bow out with. You could argue Peaches presence, but as with past left-of-centre collaborators (KRS-1, Q-Tip) it just adds to Collapse‘s character. Try to listen to this track and not remember how much fun R.E.M. were. (CS)

Contributors: Craig Smith (CS), Jonathan Langer (JL), and Nathan Goldman (NG)

There’s the oft-spoken and written about quality that a band, actor, or performer in any artistic capacity that sets them apart from everyone else. It’s called “it”. She’s got “it”, he’s got “it”. That band’s got the “it” factor. Blah blah blah. A pretty stupid description as far as I’m concerned. There is no “it”. People get lucky. Musicians get lucky. I could talk your ear off about bands or directors who’ve totally wowed me with their first album or film and then completely fell off the face of the earth. (Richard Kelly, anyone?) Others get better with time, honing their craft and learning from mistakes. And some just hover through seas of mediocrity until their careers just…end.

This is part of the reason I love The Rassle. By their own admission, “just rock and roll”, “familiar but fresh”. They understand that thousands of people have been there, done that. They’re here to enjoy whatever the moment is right now, and it feels pretty damn great. Listen to The Rassle’s first single, “Wild Ones” and you’ll hear what they’re talking about. It’s a sound that’s been done before. A little synthy, a little danceable. But by the time that kick drum chorus comes bellowing forward, it doesn’t matter. You’re bobbing your head like this is the first time you’ve heard indie rock before. It’s fantastic.

So it goes with the rest of their debut EP. Strong songwriting that teeters over both tried-and-true and original. Sure to be on everyone’s “it” list.

01. Who are you?

We are The Rassle out of New York City, and we recently celebrated our first birthday.

02. What do you sound like?

At the end of the day it’s just rock and roll. Familiar but Fresh. We tend to aim for the rafters.

03. What do friends say you sound like?

Everyone’s listening experience is different, but we’ve heard everything from Arcade Fire to
T.Rex.

04. How did the band get started?

The long and short of it, is we all knew each other from playing in bands over the last few years. Erik had The Virgins, Mark had The Takeover UK, and my brother Blair and I had Young Lords.

A little over a year ago, my previous project had dissolved and Blair and I were kicking around the idea starting something new. We called up Erik, who happened to be at a musical crossroad as well, and began talking more seriously about starting a new band. Initially apprehensive, Erik jumped on board after hearing a couple rough demos Blair and I had coughed up.

We all had a loose idea of what we wanted to do creatively, but didn’t really know how to get from point A to B. So we sat in my apartment day in day out for a several weeks, writing and recording, experimenting with sounds, and bouncing ideas off of each other. Nothing was too out there to try. Obviously not everything worked, but we tried everything. Anyways that initial batch of songs made up our first EP.

A couple weeks later Mark picked up on Bass duties, and a few weeks after that we played our first show.

05. Give me your five band-defining albums?

Five is quite limiting, but some favourites include :-

Lou Reed – Transformer
Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run
Oasis- What’s The Story (Morning Glory)

and more current ones I’ve really liked are :-

The Walkmen – Lisbon
The Vaccines – What Did You Expect form The Vaccines?

07. Tell us about the last song you wrote?

The last song we wrote is our new single “21”, which we’re giving away for free here. We wrote and recorded the song in our apartment over what happened to be the thickest and nastiest heat wave of the summer. Some songs take time to develop and take shape, others write themselves. Even in the debilitating heat, the latter was the case with this one.

08. Who would be some dream collaborators?

Lykke Li, Mick Jones, and Andre 3000. Also I’ve been a big fan of Spike Jonze since seeing his skate videos when I was a kid. It would be rad to collaborate with him on something.

09. You’re making us a mixtape. What’s going on it?

Jock Jams Volumes 1-4 would probably make up the bulk of it.

10. First time listeners, where should they start?

Be sure to grab our EP for FREE on our website, and our new single “21” here.

Introducing The Rassle EP by therassle

With their debut album If It Carries On Like This We’re Moving to Morecombe, London post-rock quartet The Fierce & The Dead left an indelible impression at Webcuts HQ. It was an album that defied categorisation and challenged perceptions of the post-rock genre, not only from the exceptionally long-winded and unselfconscious title, but in the way it fused elements of post-rock with hardcore, ambient soundscapes and jazz/funk experimentation. It was as if The Fierce & The Dead wanted to sound like all bands, and none.

In theory If It Carries On Like This… should document the sound of confusion, of a band of schizophrenics crafting warped instrumentals, uncertain of who they are and where they’re going. In truth, it’s deeply grounded in the realm of melodic experimentation and intuitive songwriting that gets levelled at supposed innovative over-achievers like Radiohead. You could say ‘don’t believe the hype’, but where The Fierce & The Dead are concerned, there is no hype. Except perhaps here and a handful other blog-type outposts that have fallen under their spell. For a band to have quietly released this enigmatic gem, certains questions remain, least of all — just who the hell are The Fierce & The Dead?

Who are you?

We are the Fierce And The Dead. We’ve been together for a couple of years although me, Stuart Marshall and Kev Feazey have played with together off and on for some time. We now have another guitar player called Steve Cleaton who is an old friend. I’d had the band name for a few years and I was looking for a project with that name.

What do you sound like?

Some people say post rock or progressive rock or indie rock. I think there is a lot of ground covered from ambient to hardcore punk so its hard to define.

What do friends say you sound like?

We get King Crimson, The Fall, Radiohead, Explosions In The Sky. I think there are lots of different elements and we have no intention of making the same record twice. We want to keep trying new things and take risks.

How did the band get started?

We were trying out some stuff in a rehearsal room for my solo album Ghost and we wrote a song so we became a band. It felt really natural and easy.

What are your five band-defining albums?

King Crimson – Red
Husker Du – Zen Arcade
Black Flag – Damaged
DJ Shadow – Entroducing
Draw – Battery Sessions

Current band highlight/lowlight/amusing anecdote?

During the making of the album we lost one of our best friends – Dan Wilson. A huge influence on our lives and therefore on our music. Our album is dedicated to him.

Tell us about the last song you wrote?

The last one is about the riots currently happening in London outside our doors, it has an early eighties hardcore/Dead Kennedys type sound. It would be hard to imagine writing about anything else at the moment. The world is changing really fast.

Who would be some dream collaborators?

Perhaps Bob Mould, and if you’ve not read his book you really should. Some great vocalists maybe so Mike Patton, Jello Biafra, Diamanda Galas or David Byrne.

You’re making us a The Fierce And The Dead mixtape. What’s going on it?

Husker Du, King Crimson, Bobby Conn, Draw, Napalm Death, Wilco, Black Flag, Mogwai, Zoe Keating, Can and DJ Shadow.

First time listeners, where should they start?

Our debut album – track “10×10″ probably, that was our single and its a decent representation of what we do. Don’t listen to our first EP is one long 19 minute track. We’re still proud of it but not the ideal first listen!

http://thefierceandthedead.bandcamp.com/

It’s a rare pleasure to encounter a musician who’s music left a significant impact on your youthful, impressionable self. Rarer still for their music to sound as deeply melodic and punchy as any great pop/rock band you’ll hear today, but alas, if only I could show you. It’s a fate that has befallen many a small band in the days before the internet, before Youtube, before any kind of shared archive or means of documenting information that would prove, beyond scratchy pieces of vinyl and faded memories, that they even existed. The music does remain, but so too unanswered questions about the band itself — where it all started, why it all ended and what happened inbetween.

The band in question were called Helvelln. It’s ok for you to think “who? never heard of ‘em”. Honestly, you’d have to be aged 35+, Australian, and a regular listener of Triple J or Triple R. Maybe you watched Neighbours. In the finicky annals of Australian music history, and with no disrespect to Helvelln, they barely warrant a mention. To briefly summarise, Helvelln were an inspired pop/rock 3-piece formed in Melbourne in the late 80′s, released two singles and one album and then broke up in the early 90′s. Google them and you’ll get pictures of mountains. Impressive and rocky, but hardly rock n’ roll.

It was a great pleasure to track down Jeremy Gronow, Helvelln’s vocalist/guitarist and songwriter who gave up considerable time and effort (in one of the longest interviews we’ve ever done), to help shape another chapter in our series on the Secret History of Australian Music.

How did Helvelln get started?

The bass player Andrew Papadopoulos and I met at school and began playing in a couple of bands. After school we kept going but lost a singer to NIDA (an acting school) in Sydney and a drummer (I forget why).

We met Nick, Helvelln’s drummer about 1988/89 after I called 3RRR in desperation to ask if they would mention we were looking for a drummer on air. By chance the girl who answered the phone knew Nick and hooked him up with us. At that time we had a new singer as well who left after a couple of months.

Rather than look for a new singer (we were sick of auditioning people), we decided I would sing until someone better came along. At the time i was a bit disappointed to be the singer as I really wanted to be a cool guitarist and singing made it hard to show off on guitar.

What was the decision behind giving the band such an obscure and prone-to-misspelling name? If I recall correctly, you chose one spelling on your first single and then subsequently dropped it!

The band name was Nick’s idea – it was originally Helvyvelln, which he liked because it had a kind of symmetry around the ‘V’ (Nick’s next band was called ‘dollop’ for similar reasons). It was the name of a mountain in Wales that he had heard about while travelling. We later found out that it is the highest mountain that you can legally cycle across in the UK.

As you mention unfortunately no-one could pronouce it (the first in a series of pretty stupid marketing ideas we had) and eventually we shortened it to Helvelln. That didn’t clear things up though and we kept getting mistaken for a Melbourne Van Halen cover band called Hans Valen. I recall turning up a gig once and the bar manager saying “I’m pumped you’re playing here tonight, do you do “Hot for Teacher”?”.

What were your influences starting out?

I was really into The Jam (Style Council also, I’m a longtime Paul Weller fan), the Clash and the Who. Hoodoo Gurus, Violent Femmes, Paul Kelly, Steven Cummings, Wedding Parties Anything. Harem Scarem, Blue Ruin, TISM, the Fish John West Reject and Paul Kelly. I remember we all liked Midnight Oil as well (hell, who didn’t at that time?). Nick brought in some different influences like Hendrix and Peter Gabriel (we loved his movie soundtrack to Passion of Christ).

As the band went on we turned each other on to a lot of bands. Some of my favourite memories of the band are the way we would play each other new stuff, usually in the van on the way to gigs – we got into the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Ride, Pixies, the Breeders, Jane’s Addiction and Nirvana.

I recall some early hype being that you won nationwide campus band competition? How long had the band been playing at this point?

We won the National Campus battle of the Bands in 1990 and would have been together 2 years at that stage.

Andy and I were both at Melbourne University which had a bit of music scene going on at the time. I think we entered the year before and didn’t do very well but then in 1990 we hit our straps and won our heat, then the Melbourne Uni final then the state final and the nationals. We already had the “Subway/Elvis” single out at the time and had toured Sydney as well so I think that helped because the judges knew us a bit.

It was kind of a weird thing to compete playing music and it all felt a bit arbitary to say one band was better than another (although some were pretty awful). Anyway I think we managed to stay relaxed about the whole thing and that helped too.

Apart from having this tag possibly dog you throughout the band’s career, were there any benefits – girls/money/studio time etc?

Winning the national final was a huge help – at the time it was the biggest competition of its kind in the Southern hemisphere. The prize was a tour of universities all over Australia, so we were able to go everywhere and offset the pub gigs with lunchtimes at unis and colleges. It also got us noticed by JJJ which had just gone national at that stage and were very keen to play bands from other states, so we became their ‘Victorian’ band. It also got us noticed by Mushroom who eventually offered us a deal although we had already self financed the record that became our debut release for them. As I recall it didn’t really help with the girls though….

Did this win dovetail into the band recording the “Subway”/”Elvis” 7″?

Actually we did the 7″ before the Campus battle of the bands. In 1989 we won a battle of the bands run by the City of Malvern (Stonnington these days). The prize was a couple of days recording at Bakehouse in Fitzroy and we recorded “Subway” and “Elvis”. I remember finishing mastering the single and walking down Brunswick St to Polyester Records. We walked in and played it to Paul Elliot who ran the shop and label and he agreed to put it out if we paid for the pressing. In retrospect I can’t believe it happened like that, it was so easy. All of a sudden we had a single and a cool indie label was putting it out for us. I remember making the record cover at a friends place, I don’t think Photoshop was around then so we just cut out bits of paper and stuck them together in a collage. It was all very naive and DIY.

What can you tell me about the decision behind recording those two tracks? Did you feel they were the most band representative and radio-friendly songs in your set at the time?

“Subway” was just the best song we had at the time and we did “Elvis” because it was favourite to play live. “Elvis” orginally had a totally different arrangement (kind of average white boy funk, dear god!) but a friend of ours, Ben, had been playing it solo and worked out the new arrangement so we borrowed that and the song became much better.

Lyrically both songs came from the same place, teenage angst about girls. Subway was about a real railway underpass in Melbourne (its called the Degraves St Underpass) that I used to walk through and thought was really cool. Since then its become even cooler with some great left of centre shops there including one called Sticky that only sells fanzines. I used to see girls down there that I thought were awesome and lust after them. “Elvis” was about me jokingly accepting that my girlfriend of the time loved him more than me.

Subway Girl by Helvelln

I guess they’re more or less a thing of the past, now that most bands tend to duke it out over the internet, but it seems the moral of the Helvelln story is never underestimate the power of a battle of the bands?

Hell yeah, even though the idea of bands fighting it out and being judged kind of appalls me, band competitions really worked out well for us. At the time it was one of the only ways for bands with no profile to get noticed.

So a quick timeline of the band would be formed in 1988, released “Subway” 7″ in 1989, won National Campus Band Competition in 1990, and then released your self-titled debut in 1992 (with many a trip up and down the Hume inbetween). You mentioned that you self-financed the recording of your debut prior to Mushroom’s involvement. From the DIY beginnings of the 7″, did you have aspirations to avoid major label trappings?

No, we weren’t trying to avoid them, we just didn’t believe major labels would ever be interested in us. Our aspriations were very low, I think we really just enjoyed making noise.

Also at the time the indie stations PBS and RRR were huge in Melbourne and if you made a record you could get enough the airplay to keep a band going. The DIY thing was just what everyone we knew was doing so thats what we did as well.

With the amount of radio play that “Subway” got, what made you go with Mushroom, and what were the terms of Mushroom’s involvement with the band? The album was released on their alternative “White Label” imprint and had some marketing campaign around it that reduced the price of the album as in incentive to purchase.

At the time Mushroom had a really good A and R guy called Bill Page and we got on well with him and he seemed to get where we were coming from.

Beyond that, they were the only label interested in us. To their credit Mushroom had a policy of signing lots of local bands back then. Some of them would work and they’d write the others off on tax. The year we got signed they also picked up Frente and Have a Nice Day. They didn’t spend a lot of money on the bands but just took a small punt in the hope that one might take off.

Given the album was already made they really didn’t have much involvement in the music part. They did get a ‘name’ photographer Polly Borland for the cover, she’d had stuff in The Face which was super cool back then.

They also found a great video director called Clayton Jacobson who went on to have a hit film called Kenny (its about a guy who hires out portaloos, apparently its fun) who did us a low budget clip to show off his stuff to Mushroom.

Most bands tend to get their live set down on record when it comes to recording their first album. Given that it was paid for on your dime and you weren’t there to muck around, was this the case with Helvelln?

Yeah just did the stuff we had been playing. No writing in the studio or experimentation. The place we were recording at (Sing Sing) in Melbourne was pretty expensive anyway so there wasn’t much time to fool around.

As debut albums go, for Australian bands in the early 90′s (god, there was a lot of innocuous shit about — The Sharp, Things Of Stone And Wood, etc), it had at least one thing going for it — a solid side 1. The first half dozen tracks are some classic 3-piece rock/pop — strong hooks, great melodies, just perfect, catchy radio tunes.

Although we didn’t plan on being a three piece (people just kept leaving the band until thats all that was left) the three piece line up has a lot of advantages sonically. No one has to compete for space in the mix and you can overplay all you want. Once you bring in a second guitar or a keyboard suddenly theres competition for space and you have to think a lot more about everything, the sounds, parts, arrangements, etc.

Given your penchance for other classic 3-piece acts like Violent Femmes and The Jam who made equally memorable debut albums (hmm, less so The Jam…), did the album live up to your youthful aspirations? What were some of your memories of making the record?

It was great to wake up in the morning and think, ‘Wow, I’m going to the studio to record’. We were in our early 20′s and really living the rock dream. There was no pressure on us either ‘cos we didn’t have a deal and really only wanted to get our stuff played on RRR. So my memories are that it was really fun and great to be in a studio with a decent recording room and gear.

A lot of the songs seem to be about, or involve, girls…. (“Subway”, “T-Shirt”, “Cigarettes & Beer”, “Elvis”, “Cruelest Plague”). They always make for great subject material or inspiration, no?

Yeah, like I said, I was in my early 20s and didn’t have a lot else on my mind. I don’t think you could call me a deep thinking kind of songwriter at that time. I was involved in a fairly tumultuous relationship as well and every time we’d have an argument I’d write a new song.

Click here for part 2 of Secret History of Australian Music – Helvelln

Part 2 of our Secret History of Australian Music retrospective on Helvelln and interview with guitarist/vocalist and songwriter Jeremy Gronow. For part 1 and a more considered introduction, go here.

Bedroom critic that I am, I’d be amiss not to suggest that only thing that lets Side 1 down is the lugubrious “Temptation”. If I had my way, I would’ve swapped it for “Subway” and barn-stormed Side 2 with “Cigarettes And Beer”. Though Side 2 seems to be weighed down by the less up-front rock-y numbers. It’s hard to believe that the critical response would’ve been anything less than positive, but was this the case?

Yes, I think you’re right there. “Temptation”, yeah, I reckon it went down better live but we didn’t have the chops to pull it off on record.

The other one that makes me cringe is the pseudo funk of “Crown of Thorns”. One of the problems we had with that record was because of the limited time and money we didn’t have any spare songs we could use – so everything we did went on the record. A few other options would have been good.

As far as critics go, I can’t remember how it was received but we were getting strong airplay on JJJ and the program director there Mark (forgotten his surname) really liked us as well. So the record reviews weren’t really important to us.

Cruelest Plague by Helvelln

You released one single from the album with “Cruelest Plague”, which didn’t seem to do you many favours. It wasn’t the strongest track on the album, nor did it have an inviting title (but hey, it got played on Neighbours!). Was this your idea/their idea?

God, I can’t remember, it was probably the record company’s idea. I guess we were young and not in a position to stand up to the record company – they were the experts and we were the dumb arse musicians. Also it took a long time to get the contract finally signed after they first offered it to us and I think we were grateful to have anything come out.

It did get hammered on Neighbours which meant great publishing royalties since at the time they were showing Neighbours twice a day in England (revenge for On the Busses, I reckon!).

Record companies can be prety literal in their approach. I remember meeting one of Mushroom’s (or maybe their distributor Festival) sales reps in Brisbane and this guy had been wracking his brain for a gimmick to push Cruelest along. Bless him for being enthusiastic but he came up with the idea of sending test tubes filled with green slime labelled ‘Cruelest Plague’ around to radio and so forth like it was dose of anthrax – probably not the best way to have the band remembered.

Many of the tracks on that album still stand up today, and you can’t get any more “Oz Rock” than “Cigarettes & Beer” and that great opening line — “I don’t know what you see in her/she’s always taking about nothing”. Why on earth wasn’t this released as a single? Or “T-Shirt” or “Crystal”? I’m amazed that (again, if my memory is playing tricks, excuse me) no other singles were released from the album when all three seemed to capture the raw pub-rock/pop vibe of the band perfectly.

What a nice thing to say. I reckon what happened was that the A and R guy who signed us to Mushroom left a few months after the record was released and we didn’t have anyone there championing our cause or pushing for more singles. I always thought we really were much more of a rock band than Cruelest or Subway suggested. Mind you, at the time we were also doing a spoof version of Wake me Up Before You Go Go (as a waltz) so you can draw your own conclusions……

Cigarettes And Beer by Helvelln

My last recollection of the band was your national tour with Frente and Archie Roach (late 1992?). During the Sydney show at the Annandale Hotel, word went round Archie was unable to perform so Helvelln had to play an extended set which was heavily weighted in new material. Presumingly this would’ve appeared on your second album….. which never happened. Was the album recorded? Did Mushroom pull the plug? Is there a complicated story here or a rather simple one?

Oh yeah, this is where the Helvelln story starts going a bit tragic. We got 75% of the way through recording our second album when Mushroom shelved it.

What happened was that the guy who signed us, Bill Page, left the company. The guys that took over from him in A &R didn’t have a stake in the band and didn’t get what we were about. I remember one of them giving me a copy of KD Lang’s Ingenue and telling me this was how our record should sound. It remains one of my favourite records but Hevelln were never going to sound or be like KD, when i think about it now it just seems absurd. I think a lot of bands have been through this situation when they lose their champion at their label.

I remember these two guys came to the studio to listen to what we had done and seemed to like it at the time but the next morning word came through that we were to stop recording. They didn’t like the feel of the songs (particularly the drums) and they didn’t hear a hit song. I was totally devasted, I had put an enormous amount of work into the record. I lost all confidence in myself and I felt lost.

We had also spent a lot of the recording budget already ($30K). Part of the problem I think was that our manager was also the manager of the studio we were using as well as producing the record. To us at the time it seemed like a really convenient way to go but there is an obvious conflict of interests although there was no malice intended. If you think about the roles a band manager, studio manager and producer are supposed to play then you can see how it would be impossible to serve all three masters well.

But it didn’t end there. We picked ourselves up and began intensive rehearsals to work on new material and ‘fix’ the problem with the feel of our songs.

Some good stuff happened during this period, Mushroom organised for me to do some writing with Paul Kelly. He was incredibly generous with his time and taught me a lot about how a craftsman goes about writing a song*. After a while it became apparent that Mushroom had a problem with our drummer Nick. Interestingly, one of the A & R guys who shelved us was making moves on Nick’s girlfriend at the time but I don’t know if that was a part of their opinions, seems like a pretty mean thing to do if it was.

This was a big problem for me. We were under pressure to sack a band member and for a three piece that can be pretty difficult. We were friends and it was an incredibly difficult decision to make. Also I was tired of having to be the main songwrtier and front man, I was feeling pretty isolated both on and off stage. So my solution to both problems was to turn Helvelln into a seven piece band with Nick playing percussion and a new drummer installed.

I think it was my way of dodging the issue. I was only 22 at the time and not really equipped to understand the situation, not to mention having had my confidence totally shattered when they shelved the record.

Turning into a 7 piece was totally the wrong thing to do. We stopped being what we were and became a new thing. What we needed at the time was some good advice to stick to our guns but none was forthcoming – our manager had gone off to tour America with Archie Roach and we were young and inexperienced.

Helvelln continued to stagger on as a seven piece and Mushroom set us up with Michael Spiby from the Badloves as a producer. We did some demos with him and he was great but his own career was taking off and didn’t have the time to deal with a broken emotionally needy songwriter and band.

To their credit Mushroom did support us financially during this time paying for rehearsals and a demo but there was no-one who actually cared about the band that much. We were really lost and eventually they cut us loose. I don’t feel bitter towards them as a company at all, they took a punt on us (and many local bands at the time) and it was a great ride while it lasted.

If I could go back and talk to myself about it I would say – stay as a three piece, make the hard decisions and keep doing what you do, have faith in yourself. We really needed someone to protect and help us, we were just kids.

*Paul Kelly doesn’t piss around with songwriting. He would start with and idea and then the first line and then methodically work his way through the song in one sitting. At the time I would have an idea and then put it down and then come back to it later and generally procrastinate with the song until the original intention was long gone. Its only recently that I have realised the importance of just focussing on a song and working on it until its finished, only took 20 years to learn that lesson :)

Given that you had a lot of new songs written, were you disappointed that you never got to release a follow-up? Considering my cassette of that show is in a box on the other side of the world, can you recall much about those songs and the direction the album would’ve taken?

Yes, I was disappointed. I think it would have been a much truer representation of the band. A lot more guitars and a harder sound. I remember a fair number of the songs – some of them I kept playing in other bands. One, called “Adverse”, got recorded two of my subsequent bands. Recently, as a result of your interest and kind words in fact, I have been thinking about resurrecting a couple of others. My latest band (with Andy Pap from Helvelln) just recorded a demo of one of those old songs (“Drama Queens”) and it came out really well.

What did you do after the band broke up?

Well, I had a bit of a hard time immediately afterwards. I got glandular fever, I think largely due to the stress of the whole thing and splitting up with the girl I was seeing at the time. After that I formed a new band called Colourbomb with Andy Pap from Helvelln on bass and Carl Panuzzo from a legendary Melbourne band called the Chequerboard Blues Band on drums. We were together for about 18 months and then ran out of steam. After that I formed another band called Idiot Son that were together for about three years and made a couple of records.

Around 2002 – 03 I got totally jack of playing in bands and stopped.

I was sick of how much time (and money) you had to spend on managing a band and organising people as opposed to actually playing music. I had forgotten why I enjoyed doing it. So I quit for a while and didn’t touch a guitar for a couple of years. I went back to Uni and did a masters degree and had two kids. After a while (2007 maybe) I started playing guitar again and doing occasional gigs in weird locations. I played at a fish farm one night where the fish were actually leaping out of their pools – I’m not sure if it was to escape me or a sign of how much they were enjoying it.

From the look of things you’re back recording and playing shows as a solo artist after a considerable absence. Have you found a renewed interest in making music and performing again?

Yeah, I’m really glad to have got back into it, music is such a big part of my life and I don’t think I would have been happy without it. As I mentioned above I started off playing solo shows but recently have started another band with Andy from Helvelln and Miles who played drums in Idiot Son. Its been great just to make some noise and communicate with other people by playing music with them. When things are going well in a band you forget about what you are playing and focus on what everyone else is doing which is very zen and relaxing. I’ve been enjoying putting some work into new songs as well.

My approach these days is a lot more craftsman like- not the bolt of inspiration you have when you’re young but these days its not nearly so nerve wracking either. When I was young i used to feel like every song I wrote was my last and get quite worked up about it. With the benefit of experience you learn to relax and work through things knowing you’ll get there in the end.

What are your thoughts about Helvelln 20-odd years down the track? Are you surprised that people still remember the band?

I was really surprised that people still remember the band. Andy Pap was saying the other day that he was coming home from a gig about 1am one night when he heard “T-Shirt” on 3RRR and was blown away by how big it sounded. We were always really self deprecating about what we did at the time (I think as a bit of a defence mechanism) so its been good to think, actually we weren’t so bad. I wish we’d been more sure of ourselves back then but, as they say, the past is another country.

What’s the likely outcome of Helvelln songs appearing at one of your shows? You wouldn’t want to disappoint the old crowd, right?

There a pretty good chance I’d say but I’ll have to listen to the record to remember the songs, its been a while. I reckon “T-Shirt” would be fun to play again.

Thanks again to Jeremy Gronow for this exhaustive and informative (like holy shit, dude!) insight into the life and times of Helvelln. We were touched by the admission that our extended conversations have re-ignited a fresh creative spark and have noticed some heavy activity on Jeremy’s reverbnation page of late. If you like what you heard, or you’re an old fan of Helvelln and have been directed here instead of the top of a mountain, we insist you check out http://www.reverbnation.com/jgronow

You have to question the motives behind a band who put a picture of two gurning band members on the front cover of their debut 7″, or when asking the record company for a promo photo being offered ‘the one where they’re all dressed up in drag’, or ‘the one where they’re chewing grass’ (we passed on both). Sheffield’s Seize The Chair have the air of a band who clearly and delightfully just don’t give a fuck. In fact they probably just want to make music and have a laugh. Which, if you’ve seen that record sleeve, you’ll be laughing too.

Seize The Chair are not a comedy band. In fact they’re like a rockier, bespectacled version of The Housemartins. Released this week is “You Who”, the aforementioned 7″ on the Too Pure Singles Club. A freakishly catchy hook-driven number “You Who” breaks off at a fast guitaring gallop, throwing down some Oasis-class rhyming and adding a little Talking Heads “Road To Nowhere” into the mix (I swear it’s in there). Flipside “It Happens Periodically” is a more considered stab at indie country rock without the affectations, adding some unexpected diversity to their repertoire. Not only just for shits and giggles then, eh? So the question had to be asked (and believe us it was), who the hell are Seize The Chair?

01. Who are you?

We are Jam Freeman (drums), Nick Chantler (Vocals & Guitars), Rowan Roberts (Guitars & Vocals) and Steven Mullins (Bass). Our name came from a game that we used to play as infants. We are from all over Narnia, but we reside in Sheffield. We have probably been together about 18 months.

02. What do you sound like?

We sound like we have fun.

03. What do friends say you sound like?

John said we’re alright – we trust him.

04. How did the band get started?

Nick, Jam and Steven all met when they moved to Sheffield – Rowan joined us shortly after, although Nick and Rowan knew each other before the band was formed. It took us far too long to get round to actually go and make noise together. In fact, we booked our first gig while we were all at opposite ends of the earth. We had like, two weeks to write some songs and practise them in order to play it. Somehow, we pulled it off (we think).

05. Give me your five band-defining albums?

Well, this is going to change every five minutes, but, at the moment:

Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
Thee Oh Sees – The Master’s Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In
The Strokes – Is This It?
Gomez – Liquid Skin
Queens Of The Stoneage – Songs for the Deaf

06. Current band lowlight/highlight (you choose)?

Well – we played a show in Coventry. The whole day was a disaster. We got mugged, then we played to three very drunk large men who only had ears for Kings of Leon.

07. Tell us about the last song you wrote?

The last one we wrote is an all out garage freak-out. It’s probably less than two and a half minutes long – sometimes, that’s all you need. It has 3 chords, ‘chuggy’ drums and delayed vocals. I think we finished it within ten minutes.

08. Who would be some dream collaborators?

Oh, erm – Steve Albini would be a good one. No one else though – we are control freaks.

09. You’re making us a Seize the Chair mixtape. What’s going on it?

Lots of The Fall, a load of Super Furry Animals singles & anything that has been put out by In The Red.

10. First time listeners, where should they start?

I guess “Deborah” would be a good song to start with. (Er, how about the single you just released?)

You Who by Seize The Chair ;

For the last three years the Too Pure Singles Club has been releasing monthly 7″ singles to subscribers featuring a selection of rising UK and international alternative acts, many of whom are unknown outside their own country (their own town even). The appeal of a singles club is more than just a piece of vinyl every month by a band you’re unlikely to have ever heard of. Actually, that is the appeal. Hit or miss as they can be, you never know which one of these limited run singles will turn out to be your next favourite band. Having once been a paid up member of the talent-launching Sub Pop Singles Club, the Too Pure Singles Club has shown itself worthy of the same notoriety.

Run by a handful of dedicated staff, Too Pure isn’t out to be taste-makers (a quick glance at their releases over the years will attest), but it is one of the more impressively consistent labels out there. Past alumni include Esben & The Witch, Three Trapped Tigers and Pulled Apart By Horses, as well as current releases by some of favourite acts including Welsh dance-rock agitators We//Are//Animal and Australian avant-rock instrumentalists Civil Civic. For those who’d prefer the remaining releases for the year to be a surprise, you may not want to read further as we reveal all while chatting to Singles Club main-man Paul “I only bought a record player when I started doing this” Riddlesworth.

Tell us about the club. It was started three years ago, now?

Three years ago, yeah. Pulled Apart By Horses as our first one. We basically do one 7” a month and you subscribe for £35 and you get all 12 with a download of everything as well.

Were you a fan of singles clubs before you got involved?

To be honest, I’ve never subscribed to any. I only bought a record player when I started doing this (laughs). I knew about the Sub Pop one and the Moshi Moshi one. It’s just about helping out new music. It’s the stepping stone between being a new band and the next level. After two years, 18 of them have been picked up by other labels. So the ratio is there.

COOLRUNNINGS – Fool Moon

So how does it work? Are you searching blogs? Do bands contact you?

It’s a bit of everything. It started off with just a lot of gigs and word of mouth. Then this year, bands recommended who they’ve toured with. The We//Are//Animal guys were in South By Southwest this year, saw COOLRUNNINGS and said they’re really good, so we listened to their stuff and that’s how those guys came in.

Are you open to any kind of styles? Do you like to be as eclectic as possible?

As eclectic as possible. A lot of them do sound similar. You do a Hesta Prynn and it’s a bit different. But then you’ve got The Travelling Band who are more folky and Milk White White Teeth, and then you’ve got Pulled Apart By Horses and DZ Deathrays.

Who decides what tracks go on the single?

Well it’s the band’s release. They choose what they want to do, so as long as they’re happy with it. You trust the bands to know what’s best for them and most of the time it’s been alright…

Seize The Chair – You Who

And that goes for the artwork…?

Have you seen the Seize The Chair one? Sweet jesus…

Does Too Pure have more of a preference toward releasing UK acts?

We’re open to anything really. If it’s good we’ll try and put it out. We were going to try next year and do just UK bands, but then (Icelandic psyche-goths) Dead Skeletons came along and it would be ridiculous not to release that.

What releases are you most proud of from three years of doing the Singles Club?

Pulled Apart By Horses was our first one and they’re doing pretty well now, but to be honest, it’s like saying which one is your favourite child and if you’ve got a disabled one (laughs).

You do a pressing of 500 singles for each release. How many of those are taken up by subscriptions?

It’s down a bit this year, but about 150. Out of those 500, the band get 50, and the average release sells about 120. Some bands sell out almost straight away. We put up a pre-order link for The Crookes and that sold out overnight. That was the quickest seller.

How far ahead do you plan? You already mentioned you’re into next year…

Yeah. I like to get everything sorted. I don’t like to panic. I’d rather have stuff done three months in advance. After it gets mastered you have to make sure the bands have got the artwork done on time so we can send stuff out, usually about six weeks before release. I kinda like to get everything done as quickly as possible.

So what’s coming up for the rest of the year?

We’ve got COOLRUNNINGS in September. Then DZ Deathrays in October. Crushed Beaks for November and then we’ve got The Lovely Eggs for December, which is gonna be a splitter. They’re from Lancashire. People are either gonna love it or hate it. It’s a little bit of novelty pop for Christmas.

To subscribe to the Too Pure Singles Club, (£35 for a 1 year subscription, 12 7″ singles + downloads, it’s kind of a bargain really) head over to www.toopure.com