By Michael Bergeron

When Free Press Summer Festival comes to life this month, people will be rocking out at what has become the city’s premiere outdoor music festival. But how many fans are aware of some of the movie roles performed by artists on this year’s lineup? And I’m not referring to the songs heard on movie soundtracks or concert DVDs or SNL appearances to which many of the bands can lay claim.

Chan Marshall a.k.a. Cat Power not only appears as a character in Wong Kar-wai’s My Blueberry Nights (2007), she also supplies the song “The Greatest” heard throughout the film. Iggy Pop (a.k.a. James Osterberg) actually has a filmography that professional thesps admire. Some of the films the Igster has appeared in include: Sid & Nancy (1986), The Color of Money (1986), Cry-Baby (1990), Tank Girl (1995), Dead Man (1995), and most recently a French film, L’étoile du jour (2012). Iggy Pop is also listed as composer on the unreleased The Brave (1997, directed by Johnny Depp, starring Depp and Marlon Brando). Perhaps his most iconic composition though is the “Repo Man Theme Song,” which he also performs for Repo Man (1984). A recent Blu-ray release of Repo Man by Criterion Collection features a new interview with Iggy Pop.

Brit Marling on The East

Corporate malfeasance gets a clamorous treatment in The East, a limited release from Fox Searchlight rolling out this month. The East stars Alexander Skarsgård, Ellen Page, Jason Ritter, and Toby Kebbell.  Star and writer Brit Marling discussed her work and process with Free Press Houston during a recent phone interview.

“Writing is really lonely. Zal and I wrote the film together, bouncing ideas off of each other,” admits Marling. “But eventually you are looking at a blank page and you’re really in your own world.”

Previous films written by and starring Marling include Another Earth, directed and co-written by Mike Cahill and Sound of My Voice, directed and co-written by Zal Batmanglij. Marling, Cahill, and Batmanglij all know each other from their days as students at Georgetown University. Marling has also appeared in prominent roles in films such as Arbitrage and The Company You Keep, the latter being a film that Marling states she jumped at when the opportunity arose.

In The East, Marling plays an FBI-trained operative who now works for a private intelligence company. Marling is tasked with infiltrating an anarchist collective that practices corporate sabotage. While Sound of My Voice was about a cult group led by a mysterious woman from the future, Marling doesn’t see The East as being about cults. “This group is a tribe, a community. My character is a spy who goes deep undercover and creates a new identity. But, what is that subterfuge all about if you fall in love with a new philosophy?”

“There’s a prescience to the material,” notes Marling. “We had written a scene where the group breaks into the Hampton summer estate of an oil CEO and creates an oil spill in the house. And a week later, the BP oil spill in the Gulf was in the news.” At one point Marling’s character, Sarah, reveals a cell phone in the sole of one of her shoes. “That’s the only real spy kind of tool we used. The rest of the time Sarah uses her ingenuity, like the scene where she tears a Coke can in half to use as a sharp object or even [her] secondary use [for] dental floss.”

At one point, members of The East crash an exclusive party on Cape Cod being given by the CEO of a pharmaceutical company and spike the guest’s champagne with antibiotics that the company has a contract to market in Africa. Yet, when Marling’s character contacts her boss (Patricia Clarkson) and attempts to subvert their raid, she’s told to stand down. “They’re not our clients,” Clarkson’s character says. Eventually, this experience makes Marling’s character doubt her own worth as a spy and an infiltrator.

In some ways, the Occupy Movement influenced The East. “There’s a sense that these people are agents of change. To some degree, our characters were based on the feelings of young people we were meeting and interviewing. It’s a story about people who seek revenge against corporate malfeasance like vigilantes seeking justice,” Marling states. “Yet how far is too far?”

Marling literally burst onto the scene at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival when both Another Earth and Sound of My Voice premiered and were bought by Fox Searchlight. The East was actually funded and distributed by Searchlight. “Speaking of tribes, that’s a good one to belong to,” adds Marling.

By the time you read this, Los Angeles surf rock band Wavves will have released their new studio album, “Afraid of Heights.”  With no label support, Wavves is going for a completely DIY approach, paying for the album on their own. In 2024, their album “King of the Beach” set the bar for fuzzed-out, beach-bum garage rock music and inspired numerous copycats who just didn’t match up to the band’s songwriting skills. With this new album, they’re aiming for something completely different.  FPH had the pleasure of speaking with bassist Stephen Pope about a number of topics, including being labeled a weed band, being kicked out of the VMAs, conspiracy theories, and so much more.

How was SXSW for you guys?  You played seven shows in five days.

I’m disgusting right now, but I’m OK.

I saw someone just posted on the Wavves’ Twitter account that you don’t remember playing last night.  What DO you remember from last night?

Yeah, apparently I don’t.  I sort of remember.  I know it was a Dr. Martens event and I remember there being a Doc Martens sign on the stage. I remember crowd surfing 30 minutes before we even played. I remember eating a Double Quarter Pounder with cheese and 10 McNuggets and then let out a big sigh before I went to sleep.  It was like that last breath you hear when somebody dies.

In almost every article written about your band, journalists talk about how much weed you guys smoke.  Does being labeled as a weed band ever bother you?

Not really.  I think it’s kinda cool.  Weed bands have dedicated followers.  I mean, I guess we smoke weed. We’re definitely potheads.  I mean, there are more of them in the crowd than there are of us.

You’re taking Fidlar out on the road with you and they’ve put out my favorite album at the moment.  How’d that tour combination come together and what are your thoughts on the band?

Yeah, we’re meeting up with them tomorrow in Dallas.  We’re friends with them. We like their band a lot, so we asked them to come on tour.  I love their new album.

The new record is coming out on Mom + Pop Music. How has the experience of recording this album with a label versus the self-released “Life Sux EP” differed?

We didn’t have a label while we were recording it.  We purposely did that.  We wanted to finish the album, make the album that we wanted before shopping it around to labels.  The writing process was way different.  We did “Life Sux” by ourselves, but we went in and did that in one week.  With this one, we worked with a producer, John Hill, who did some work with Rihanna and Santigold, and we recorded for an entire year without any label support. I think we had a lot more freedom this time because we HAD so much time.

Nathan said he paid for the album’s sessions out of pocket.  Was the deal done with the label strictly for promotional and distribution reasons?

It was because we needed to get our money back.  We spent the entire year not knowing if we were going to have any money because we were spending it all on the album and not really getting paid. We were broke.  But, since we got to do an album ourselves, we were able to set our own terms.  We wrote out what we wanted in a deal and then we shopped that deal around.

You got some publicity for getting kicked out of the VMAs in 2024.  What’s the real story behind that?

Nathan and I were outside the premises trying to sneak in champagne and lots of weed.  I guess I got too drunk, again. I’m a loser. I guess I was looking pretty conspicuous. I got stopped by the LAPD because I was smoking a blunt while I was presenting my ticket for the Awards. So, the LAPD stopped me – it wasn’t even security – I hadn’t got to that point yet.  They put me in what I guess was a drunk tank, it was this little holding cell, for an hour while Nathan sat next to Metta World Peace and watched the VMAs.  I didn’t even get in.  I got to the first area, walked the red carpet, and then I got arrested.

Is NBA Jam the greatest arcade game ever made? 

No. I know that’s not what you want to hear, but I’d say Street Fighter or Street Fighter II is the greatest arcade game ever made.  It IS a great arcade game, but I started playing it on Super Nintendo and that’s the version I like the best.

What’s your favorite conspiracy theory?

I’ve got a lot of favorites.  I think people that smoke weed are really into conspiracy theories for some reason.  I like the ones about the chemicals in our food, how the FDA doesn’t label our food correctly – actually, I don’t know what I’m talking about. Chem trails – I like that one.

When the aliens land, what one thing would you show them that you think would explain exactly what humans are all about?

Definitely “Bill and Ted.”  There are some things in that movie that show exactly what I’m all about.

Wavves will be playing at Fitzgerald’s on Thursday, April 18, 2024. Check out www.pegstar.net to learn more. 

Wed. 16: Clockpole/Japanther/Muhumad Ali/Daikaiju @ Mango’s
-CBGB’s veterans The Fleshtones @ The Continental Club
-Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark (OMD) @ The House of Blues
-Uh Huh Her/Diamonds Under Fire @ Fitz

Thurs. 17: iLL LiAd @ Numbers
-SXSW overflow fest featuring dozens of artists (going on all week) @ Super Happy Fun Land

Fri. 18: Football etc. (album release) @ Vinyl Junkie
-Snoop Dogg @ The House of Blues
-Blue Öyster Cult @ Arena Theater

Sat. 19: Clockpole/Somosuno/Giant Battle Monster @ Notsuoh
-The godfather of goth himself and former Bauhaus front man, Peter Murphy @ Numbers
-Gladys Knight @ Arena Theater
-Tiesto @ George R. Brown

Sun. 20: Kevin Devine/Starfucker @ Fitz
-The Pink Floyd Experience @ Verizon Wireless Center
-Men Without Hats @ Numbers

-Jack Daniel Betz

King Kahn and the Shrines

First up was King Kahn and The Shrines at Waterloo Park. Now I don’t know how but somehow from our Motel to the park it went from chilly and cool to hot as hell. But no matter, we got there just in time for King Kahn to be introduced and watched from the back only to realize very quickly that this was better experienced up front. So we made our way to the front and sure enough the experience was night and day. Instead of distant and pleasant the band ripped up with a Otis Redding inspired craziness. Fun stuff to be sure and aces moves from the guy in the bari sax but in the end I think everyone agreed that the club is the better place to experience this kind of band. Big stages like this just never do the trick.

Rusted Shut

We’d planned on seeing Explosions In the Sky but that was sidetracked along the way. I also missed Tara Jane O’Neil so, like many things, at SXSW you take what you can and don’t sweat what you missed. But after a lot of hanging around in Austin, we finally got back on course with Rusted Shut and holy shit the motherfuckers delivered. Kill Kill Kill hell yes! My chimp brain needed some ass whoopin’ and Rusted Shut was just the ticket. So after screamign and shouting to Rusted Shut I asked Don what he was on and he replied “On? Motherfucker I haven’t touched a gotdang drop all day!” snarled Don. Well, if that don’t beat all.

Box Elders

We then headed over to Red 7. The Box Elders were playing. It was nice 60′s inspired power pop and the guywas wearing a nice combo of a gold suit and black shorts but while pleasant, not very much to write home about. After all we were there for…

Jack Oblivion

Now the Oblivions are a great band, but while I was aware of the Reigning Sound and Greg Oblivion’s solo stuff, I had to plead ignorance to Jack Oblivion’s solo stuff. Thankfully from the first ring of his guitar and the rough and energetic sound of the band it was probably the most fun show I saw at SXSW – a perfect way to close up. Dancing our asses off to a fine example of American Rock and Roll with a band that was tight as hell but loose enough to convey all the chaotic energy that many Americana bands often forget is core to rock and roll. That’s not to say that these guys were hanging from the rafters to get the crowd riled up. They didn’t need to – the music did it for them – well, at least for me and my friends. When SXSW ends with drunken dancing, I think we done good.

Rock and Roll, Motherfuckers.
See you next year. that’s a wrap.

My SXSW 2024 Posts:

Jameson and Lonsetar SXSW 2024 Part I: (Link)
Jameson and Lonsetar SXSW 2024 Part II: (Link)
Jameson and Lonsetar SXSW 2024 Part III: (Link)

Also,

April’s recap (Link)

See here is the thing about SXSW, sure you have all the issues revolving around this big overblown marketing beast where small independent bands scream to be heard above the fray, but forget that. Put that aside and what you have at SXSW is this crush of humanity descending on our proud state capital every year to hear some great music and have a great time. I mean look at this fellow below.

Chris Gray – Responsible Writer
Yes, that’s our dear friend Chris Gray of the Houston Press working hard like the excellent writer he is. He’s got his press badges, his wristbands, and he blogged extensively throughout. Well, not us. No sir we are down in the trenches with you plebeians. While Chris was jumping from show to show in the evening, we had to pick our shows*, pay for each one, and drink like fishes at our homebase bar on 7th. While Chris was blogging extensively we were either too hungover to type in the morning or threatened with death for typing too loud at the early hour of 1PM. While Chris was bringing you the latest and greatest bands, we were discovering new uses for Guideon’s Bible that probably would fall under sacrilege in most denominations. So, no, you are not going to get the full SXSW musical experience here. Neither will you get a run down of all the silliness, weirdness, drama, and genuine party call me insanity of the weekend – this ain’t no personal blog. But here is a quick recap of what I got to see from Thursday and Friday. Blogger is being weird right now so Saturday’s recap will have to wait.

Thursday 19 April

Consider this a stand-in for all lame SXSW bands
Let this band take the place of all awful and middling bands of SXSW. Ya see, for all the good that you can find at SXSW, you can find something terrible. Now granted, the “Texas Rock” stage on 7th street is the worst crap you will ever hear at SXSW no matter what year it is and even these guys above couldn’t hold candle to that shit but in their own bar band/blues rock tropes kind of way they were pretty unbearable.

Elaine Greer’s death metal set at Casa de Gallo
Next stop was Casa De Gallo and when I got there I had JUST missed Giant Princess play. The setting was pretty nice – a small little home in an obscure street on the east side and there was a good representation of all your music friends relaxing while enjoying some food and music. Elaine Greer played a great set with Travis on bass being his usual jovial self and Austin lending his skills on guitar, accordion, and backing vocals. The room sounded great, the band delivered, and Elaine’s voice carried all the melody, wit, and intelligence of her songs with a charming grace. Of course, if you’ve read my columns or blogs, you’d know that this is nothing new. Buxton was to follow Elaine Greer but I had to leave to catch an old friend from Austin. No worries, you know as well as I that it’s an easy bet that Buxton would take no prisoners. Need proof? That new single they have coming out KILLS! When it comes out buy a copy, then you will truly know of this band’s might.

Friday 20 April

Friday ended up being my Battan Death March. Let’s just say, I paid for Thursday all of Friday and leave it at that but, using every possible method available to me, I plugged through. Still we did see some good bands along the way.

Jana Hunter
After that is was a race across town to see Jana Hunter at Domy books. I’d missed her Tuesday so I was glad to find that Domy was running a bit behind schedule. I mean c’mon you know Jana: that singular phrasing, that jangly guitar, the slow spacious emotional songs. Much like Lou Barlow’s set the prior night, Jana hailed in the cooler evening weather playing her haunting music as the sun began to fall and birds flew across the sky overhead. I couldn’t have asked for better.

*My band didn’t apply this year and so I didn’t ahve wristbands like I did last year.

OK, maybe I overdid it last night; it’s 1PM and I’m just now starting to recover from last night.
I’ll catch y’all up soon…Casa De Gallo, Lou Barlow, and a hella lotta booze

One - Walgreen’s batteries suck!
Two – My satchel’s HOA sharktooth button will survive anything.
Third – I look like a complete and utter indie rock pussy to doormen.

I arrived to Austin sans posse. One of my peeps caught a bad bout of food poisoning and wouldn’t arrive until Thursday leaving me pretty much on my own for the day. So after consulting the night’s shows the way I figured it was, if I wanted to take in some hardcore, this was likely the night to do it. But first a little indie rock over at Jay Crossley’s Human Party Virus.

Now, I’ll say that my allergies were kicking my ass and my allergies don’t so much make me sneeze but make me tired and drive like the worst drunk on the road. So, there I was trying to find HPV’s venue, realized it was at the sports bar across the street with the huge wide screen TVs, and, being completely zonked on tree and grass pollen, fond myself turned around and inexplicably heading east on 6th street onto oncoming traffic. Mercifull,y I made it across the street with nary more than angry honks from annoyed locals.

The venue itself, I have to say, was a bit odd. A slick if saccharine sports bar in a faceless shopping center where the patrons (thanks to thick glass) went about their business inside as a small cluster of indie rock fans sat outside. The first band up was Golden Cities whose live performance gave me exactly what I expected – a much fuller and bigger sound than their CD could have contained. I don’t know why but bands like this just work better live that trapped inside a little shiny disc. I have the same issue with Japan’s Mono where I like the CDs all right but live they are phenomenal; Golden Cities is no different. What I think sets them apart from most of the shoegazers is the interplay between the drums and the other instruments. There are these points where guitars and keyboards drift in reverb and the drums flicker about in tight complex rhythms. It’s just a great juxtaposition of sounds and just points to why Lance Higdon is one of Houston’s best and most versatile drummers. Nice.

Inoculinst followed which was a treat as I hadn’t seen them since, jeez, since they played the Proletariat. The band is now a trio and I have to say I really liked how John Hunter’s baritone found it’s perfect compliment with Ashlyn Davis’ soft understated voice though the drummer kept freaking me out as he kept making faces that had him looking like the spitting image of The Band’s Levon Helm. The music was perfect for my red eyed zonked state with that same kind of laid back country-ish vibe you get from the self-titled 1969 Velvet Underground album. Nice stuff and, if I may say so, I really have to say I really enjoyed the new line-up over the original one.

So here is where I get to the batteries. See, I tried taking pics here and then the camera went and died. Crap what the hell? Had my Kodak finally gone to meet its maker? Did Golden Cities create some force field? Well, no actually. See I was talking with Danny Mee about Houston music. He was saying how he thought that Houston Indie Rock bands had one disadvantage and that was production. He thought Austin bands albums sound great while Houston bands sound, by comparison flat. I won’t get into the discussion here because the point isn’t to get into a Houston VS Austin thing but I’ll just say it’s an interesting view but I simply don’t agree. Anyhow, while we’re talking he asks if I have any spare AA batteries so I hand him two. Well, thankfully that happened because Angela ‘s camera also stopped working and a quick look via her IPhone found that Walgreen’s batteries are crap. They pump out too much juice and basically overload your camera. Sure enough, after the show I bought some branded batteries (and some much needed Claratin D) and voila my camera came back to life. So if you are a photographer or just play one on TV – DON’T BUY WALGREEN’S BATTERIES.

OK, enough consumer reports shit. Now that I was finally not about die from my allergies and I was armed with real batteries for my camera – hardcore! So here is the funny thing. I walk up to the doorman with my hat and satchel, present my ID like everyone in front of me and he looks at me and says, “Umm what band are you looking for?”

I’m a bit confused but reply, “Mammoth Grinder.”

He looks at me again, pauses, mumbles an “Um oh OK, I just thought….”, and then trails off unintelligibly. Yes that’s right the doorman took one look at me and thought PUSSY! So, then he hands me the ID back with this look of pity like I’m gonna come out is a stretcher or something AWESOMENESS!

Well, when I come in Iron Age is playing and there is a furious jock mosh pit action going on between the crowd and the stage, so, making like C3PO walking through Storm Trooper laser fire, I saunter through the big thick necked dudes and head right to the front of the stage to stake out my territory. Sure I got slammed, I got sucker punched (unintentionally), and literally held onto my hat as I dodged flying bodies. I took one picture and boom my camera was hit so hard that my batteries literally jumped out. Still, once I got my peripheral hardcore spider sense going I was pretty good and once when one stage diver knocked over my hat someone behind me firmly put my hat back on my head. That’s what I always find is so cool about Hardcore Kids sure you may get sucker punched but it’s all in good fun and they’ll help you up if ya fall or prop ya up if you lose your balance; call it good hardcore comradeship and manners. Iron Age was pretty fun too. Big crunchy metal riffs alternating from fast hardcore 1-2 1-2 to some awesome slow crushing shit. Pretty freaking sweet and after all was said and done no matter how many bodies crashed against my satchel, my HOA sharktooth button (which has outlasted every other button) held firm. It was like the seeing the American Flag during the bombardment of Fort McHenry. That pin rules!

Next up was Mammoth Grinder who may not have been as perilous from a spectator’s standpoint but that’s only because the crowd moved up and gave the moshers no room. And wholly hell did they live up to their rep. Three dudes and a drummer that showed no mercy! It’s like the dude would take this deep breath before each beat-down he’d administer to the kit. Crushing stops and starts, brain hemorrhaging riffs, and the ubiquitous cookie monster vocals. Freaking sweet and in true bad assitude they were done in probably 15 minutes. We came, we crushed, we’re done. So, then after the set, out of nowhere, up comes Matthew Hines of The Easten Sea and then in the course of our conversation he tells me how he played bass for Mammoth Grinder at one point. AWESOME! I love how so many Idie Rock kids have played grindcore and hardcore. What’s with that? Whatever the case, it’s awesome but – between you and me – don’t tell the doormen.

The evening closed with The Jon Benet who, man, are just so freaking incredible. Last time I saw them at Numbers an inadequate PA sucked the life out of their show but here at Red 7 The sound was great and they just pummeled. The thing I love about this band is that sure they play chimp rock but they do so with this – not to put down other bands – but with this generosity and intelligence that is horribly endearing. Can I say that about a heavy ass band like this? Maybe not, but call it what you like, when they are firing on all cylinders they are just incredible and this night only proved that. Now if anyone can bottle what they do live and put that on record I’d die a happy man.

Golden Cities perform at Human Party Virus
while Jay Crossley lurks in the shadows.

Golden Cities performing outside as
patrons of the sports bar go about their business inside.

Inoculist laying down the mellow
at Human Party Virus.

This was the only picture I got of Iron Age
before the batteries were literally
knocked out of my camera.

And finally…

My SXSW 2024 Posts:
Jameson and Lonsetar SXSW 2024 Part I: (Link)
Jameson and Lonsetar SXSW 2024 Part II: (Link)
Jameson and Lonsetar SXSW 2024 Part III: (Link)

More Pics on My Flickr (Link)

Also,
April’s recap (Link)