A mid week hangover from live shows between Jazz Fest weekends? This can only be cured with good music, and what better way to cure it than heading tonight to see New Orleans own Generationals at the Blue Nile tonight with Silent Cinema and I, Octopus. Me being the curious person I am, decided to drop a few questions on my fellow catholic league brother, Grant, from the Generationals.
GENERATIONALS: It's just now getting really sticky down here. I've been living in an apartment Uptown since October and yesterday was the first day I ever had to turn on the air conditioner. It's been nice for a while, we had a relatively short winter and a long spring this year so I can't complain. It's been good, but it's about time to get out before it's miserable.
ST: Are we really talking about the weather?
GN: Shit did I just go on about the weather for 5 minutes?
ST: What about Jazz Fest season this year are you most excited about?
GN: I'm on a pretty tight budget right now, so I can't even justify going to Jazz Fest this year. I think the tickets are up to about $50 per day and the beers and food is pretty expensive too. Jazz Fest is pretty well tailored to my parents' generation. They get a few acts every year that I'm interested in but I end up spending a lot to see one band I like from about 500 yards away for about 30 minutes. I go about once every other year so I'm thinking I might have to skip this one. I like the festival season in general. I usually try to squeeze in about 3 or 4 crawfish boils every spring.
ST:Jazz Fest is a celebration of the past, musically. What other era, musically speaking, of world history would you have wanted to live in?
GN: When I was younger I used to think it would be cool to live in 1967 or 68 because it seemed like such an important time to be around. To be able to buy Sgt. Pepper's on the day it came out. Then as I got older I realized that it just seemed that way because that was the time when all the Baby Boomers came into their own and got old enough to have a music scene. Which is why to this day everyone gets Classic Rock radio rammed down their throats. It would have been just as interesting to be around in 1978 or 1988 too, there's always something cool going on, 1968 just happened to be when the cool things were also very popular. Unlike, say 1998, which was such a colossal failure of pop culture. Looking at you Carson Daly. So I'm gonna go with 1721 to see Bach drop the Brandenburg Concertos.
ST: Little known fact about me is that besides TV/Film I also studied history. The rate we take in information due to things like Twitter and Facebook has also affected our perception of history as well; most see history now in a rate judging based on generational impact instead of an imperial or dynastic one. What will your impact be to your generation.
GN: We will contribute hoverboard technology and make it safe for people to twitter on their hoverboards.
ST: Speaking of history, lets talk about genesis. I spoke to you guys at SXSW this year (drunkenly, I might add) and I probably told you about my love for the Eames Era, I would love to hear how we got to this point as the band, Generationals.
GN: The Eames Era was our first real band. Ted and I started that one with two of Ted's architecture classmates when we were in college, Brian Waits and Greg Gauthreaux, and Ashlin Phillips who we met through mutual friends. We are very proud of that band and we miss it a lot. Somewhere around early 2007, around the time we put out our last (and best) record Heroes and Sheroes, the wheels kinda came off and we realized we weren't gonna be able to tour and continue the band. Ashlin and Greg both decided to move to Chicago, I think they had both had enough at that point. Brian got married and got a serious architecture job. But that was point when Ted and I realized we really enjoyed playing in the band and touring and making records. Ironically, it seemed like we were breaking up right at the time that we were starting to get some traction on our tours and making lots of friends. We were still writing music at the same pace we always had, so we just decided to start over again with this new project, taking over more of the musical duties and singing the songs. In a way empowering ourselves to do this band without anyone else having the power to shut us down. Now that the record is finished we've been spending all of our musical energy getting our live show together and finding the right people to play in the live band with us, which has been very hard and very rewarding.
ST: I hear PTV does a secret dance mixed with fine wine to lure artists on to the label. How DO they sign so many amazing bands like yourself.
GN: Ha! I wish that was how it worked. Kevin Taylor doing a secret dance? Who could resist that? It's just really easy to see that they care a lot about the bands they work with. It took us about 5 minutes to realize that they were genuinely enthusiastic about our project. They have tons of good ideas about how to connect with people and they have a lot of hardcore fans who recognize that this is a labor of love for these guys. There's absolutely no manipulation or positioning or misrepresentation about what they're doing, it's exactly the way it looks. They convinced us in pretty short order that we could get a lot done if we teamed up. We also love the fact that they're in our city. We talk to them daily and we can meet with them almost anytime we want, they're very accessible. It was a really easy decision for us.
ST: Who are some of the artists on the label that you are excited about playing with and/or collaborating with?
GN: Their roster is amazing. There's no fat on their label, every project brings something unique and great to the table. We love Dr. Dog, they're obviously and objectively amazing. I have been a fan of them for a while because I love songs. The Peekers are also a great band. Ted and I saw them at the PTV Christmas party in '07 and loved them instantly. Also excellent songs. The Spinto Band, unbelievably great band. Stellar performers who write undeniable songs. "Brown Boxes" is just undeniable. One of the things I like so much about PTV is the songs, it seems like a group of bands who have re-invested in crafting pop songs as opposed to noise bands or avant-garde bands. The Teeth were also great makers of pop songs. It's great company to be in.
ST: Tell us about the show at the Blue Nile. Have anything special planned?
GN: We do. We found a great trumpet player in town named Johnny Hollier, Johnny and Mark Skarzynski will be playing trumpet at the show, which is the first time we've had two horns. Very excited about that. Live trumpets add so much to our show. We've also been working hard to learn the toy piano loop at the beginning of "Nobody Could Change Your Mind" as a live performance. Up until now we've been playing that as a recorded loop, but Ted and Katie Clark are actually going to be performing that part live, which is going to be really fun to see. Can't wait.
ST: Ok I have always wondered this. I know you guys went to Jesuit; I went to Brother Martin. We had a few jokes about you guys. Did Jesuit have any jokes about any other schools in the Catholic League?
GN: Yes! Whenever Jesuit had a pep rally for a game against Brother Martin, they would love to do some crack about how Richard Simmons went to Brother Martin. I have no idea if he actually went to Brother Martin, I've always heard he did but never actually checked. So there would be some kid dressed up like Richard Simmons, which is easy, everybody recognizes Richard Simmons, who would come out with his squeaky little voice and be the mascot who represented Brother Martin. He would come out and jog up to a podium and say "I got a MESSAGE for you Blue Jays! Brother Martin has been Sweatin' to the Oldies and we're ready to play!" Etc. So that was always good for a laugh.
Great stuff! I will tell you the time Richard Simmons visited Brother Martin when I see you for our Brooklynola party in May. Be sure to check them out and here is a free MP3!
MP3: Generationals - Angry Charlie
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