Has the Live Acoustic Setting Lost its Integrity?

This week’s column is not an interview nor it is a NYC band review, this column is going to be just a little bit different; in fact it’s going to be a bit more interactive by opening up the comments section this time. This entry is going to be more of an opinionated column about the acoustic setting in live situations and has it lost its integrity? You can address this topic in either comments, questions or if you want both. It doesn’t really matter but if you want people to know who you are then do so and put down your name and e-mail for feedback, if not just leave it as anonymous.

Going to enough shows and researching enough I’ve noticed that there aren’t enough acoustic shows, if any at all lately. To be honest acoustic shows isn’t what brings in the business at local clubs especially with the Rock/Indie genre, but one of the main questions is: is it even important? Important for the band? Important for the audience and/or for exposure? Converting regular songs in acoustic songs have been around for decades and if you ask me I believe that it’s a smart move for the artist. So why aren’t bands trying to achieve this goal, and also why isn’t it a concentration? As far as I know there isn’t any aim whatsoever for bands to; A.) Put on an acoustic show, and B.) Release an acoustic album and/or acoustic songs. The last “acoustic” show I ever remember witnessing was back in early 2006 and I wrote about this in Devola’s review back in mid January, but here’s the catch; as I said back in that article the only reason why Devola’s set was a acoustic set is because it turned into a emergency “strip down to acoustic” situation since the show was already booked, but prior to the show Devola went through some band difficulties which skimmed down Devola to only two official members around the time of the already booked show, therefore it didn’t count as being a intentional acoustic show.
An important element that is great about acoustic shows is the private show environment, a lot of these stripped down acoustic shows are held within a private show with a MTV unplugged sort of environment and what I mean by that is details such as a candle lit stage, plants floating around somewhere, listeners sitting on the floor instead of standing around avoiding the occasional mosh pits etc… so why is the acoustic setting important? Think of your favorite song from a local “underground” band (I know it’s hard but give it a try); now think about that song being played acoustically, I’m willing to bet that you and many other people would be interested in listening to something like that. In my opinion (since this is a opinionated article) I think that acoustic shows and albums are very important for both the artist and for the listener, some might not admit it but there are a lot of people that thrive for the wood, referring to the acoustic instruments of course, get your mind out of the gutter you pervert.
Let’s take a look how acoustics can benefit the artist. For one it brings a lot of interest when it comes to the bands following, especially if the band has a strong and abroad following. It also adds a different element to the song, such as song favorites being somewhat “remixed”. It seems to me that it’s a win, win situation for the band itself with the exception of maybe some waste of time and money if it ends up flopping, don’t forget its true what they say “time is money”, that is more than true inside of a music studio. At the same time it brings up somewhat of a risk, but if you evaluate the business of music almost everything an artist does is considered a risk. As far as the audience goes, they can’t really lose, slip the song on and if you don’t like it then change the track, it’s easy as that.
Ok now it’s your turn, as the reader I need your feedback since this article is an opinionated one. Let me know your thoughts, thoughts on the topic in hand, do you agree? Do you disagree? Do you want to put in your own advice, go ahead it’s a open board, by all means question and comment away, for those of you who are going to ask questions I can answer you back fairly quickly, since it’s a open board I will answer your questions on the site for everyone to read.

Exciting huh…

Be sure to go out, have fun, be drunk, buy albums and check out your local music scene-Jason Franquiz

Millsted's "4 songs" with Interview

Third week of January I get an invite from Millsted guitarist (Chris Caramboti) to come by the studio and review Millsted’s new E.P. which was in the process of getting mastered, so I though to myself… if I’m getting invited to Millsted’s studio to review their latest E.P. then I might as well make it count and interview them in the process. Friday night the 26th of January, walking to Millsted’s studio in the 30 degree New York City weather with the distinct smell of midtown Manhattan around 7:00pm, I entered the domain of Millsted. As I walked inside of this musician packed building memories started coming back to me from when I came to Millsted’s private show back in fall of 2006 which was held in this same building, so I pretty much already knew my way around, I got in front of Millsted’s studio door and gave drummer (Pete Belloli) a call to let him know that I’m there, as soon as I walk into the studio I get greeted by guitarist (Robert Dume), Chris and singer (Kelvin Uffre), I also received some of the “greatest and finest” wine ever produced a few minutes after, I forgot the name but whether it was aged one hundred years ago or just made ten days ago in Washington Heights it was some pretty damn good wine and apparently it gets you wasted pretty quick.
After about a half hour of conversation, wine and cigarettes the guys put on their new E.P. on the stereo for me to have a listen and with every song I took note of. Listening to some of the songs I quickly noticed that I’ve already heard two of the 4 new songs already because there were performed live already, I also noticed right away that these songs sound a lot more straight forward than songs from Millsted’s previous E.P. Brief Case which is not a bad thing of course because theirs always room for some sort of change and change doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Something the same that didn’t really change from the previous E.P. Brief Case is the two guitars complimenting each other very well in these songs but then a again that makes up part of Millsted’s signature sound, the bass is very defined and noticeable which is always a plus, and when it comes to drummer (Pete Belloli) and his new drum tracks they are far more powerful and a lot more driven which helps the new E.P. overall with the more straight forward sound. With the new band line-up you can hear the different elements put together in this new E.P. it’s always good to listen to a band with a very diverse back round and every element counts.
After I took a listen to the new E.P. Bassist (Sam Fernandez) walks into the studio and right then and there every member of Millsted was officially in the building. Shortly after setting up some equipment they performed the new songs live as I took more notations. This was actually very good for me considering the fact that I can pick up every element of this new E.P. both recorded and live, and let me say that it does make a difference, for instance when it comes to the guitars on the record you can’t really figure who’s who between Chris and Rob but you tend to get a better understanding when you see the songs played live, well when it comes to the two guitarists I did learn an interesting factor while the songs were being played live, I learned that both Chris and Rob play an equal part by playing both rhythm and lead, there is no real role they both take on this challenge which is great. Another thing I noticed while Millsted played their new songs live is their use for effects such as; slides (guitar), keyboards, a nice line of guitar effect processors… etc. Overall the new E.P. is different from the previous E.P. Brief Case but still maintaining the recognizable Millsted sound, it’s worth putting money out to buying it and supporting these guys, also this new E.P. can be considered as an improvement from previous recordings.
The interview itself was very entertaining considering the fact that Kelvin… well lets just say that he had a little bit too much to drink before hand, aside from that everyone was cool and up-beat (no pun intended). Even though Kelvin was moderately intoxicated he held up the interview fairly well, as you will tell as you read the interview in itself. The phrase of the entire interview was the infamous “that’s off the record” for the guys of Millsted, every time a joke or something totally redundant was said that pertained nothing with the topic in hand they would immediately blur out “and that was off the record”, which made the interview process that much more entertaining in many levels. To conclude details about this very interesting interview I’d say that the guys were very comfortable within their own element and they were very excepting to my presence and made me feel “at home” so to speak.

Now for your reading and viewing pleasure here is the interview I conducted with Millsted which is below, read on…

Millsted interview:

Jason: How’s the film crew coming along with the documentary?
Chris: Well they’re done filming.
Kelvin: They came to a bunch of our shows, they came to our listening party and like they make you feel really comfortable it’s like they are not even there, those guys are great, their Rob’s friends, my friends.
Rob: Yeah they’ve been filming with us since September.
Kelvin: They really care about the end product you know, they care about what their doing, it’s not just the fucking product, they care about the vision and it all goes together with the music.

Jason: What are your plans for this documentary? Is it coming out with the new E.P. or is it to be released by itself?
Chris: Well what we’re doing is an electronic press kit which is just eight minutes of footage that we have and then we’re going to do a DVD which is like about a half hour and then maybe use some clips for a music video or whatever.

Jason: It seems like Millsted had the occasional “run in” with the club Lit Lounge, first with your show getting cut short back in February of 2006 and then once again in October of 2006 with the sound girl cutting the power during the last song. Are you guys planning to play that venue anymore?
[Surrounding up-roaring laughter] Kelvin: Well we’ll be there in April, what happen was that the Killtakers set was long and it took a little bit of time, and by the time we got up there they wanted to cut our set short aside from that electronica band having to get on stage, so we got up there and we were almost over and they were like you have one more song left and we decided to keep going because we have that punk rock appeal, like if you book us we are going to play what we said we are going to play, regardless of the repercussions you know.
Rob: [While laughing] You should tell him what happened after we tried to play that last song.
Kelvin: Yeah, the bouncer came up and he was like shoving me and I was shoving him and the sound woman was really upset that I called her a bitch and Chris called her a bitch and umm… [With Chris interrupting]
Chris: [In laughter] it was my birthday I do what I want.
Kelvin: So we told the bouncer; she tried to cut us off while we were playing our set and it’s over. The bouncer was really cool about it and everything was fine.
Chris: Everything is fine now.
Kelvin: Yeah so we play there in April.

Jason: You guys are playing the Thrash Bar on the 29th of March with Devola and Near Forever, how do you guys like playing with both Devola and Near Forever?
Chris: I don’t think we ever played with Devola, not my cup of tea personally, but Near Forever is very awesome I really like them, their good friends; Mike produced the last E.P. Brief Case.

Jason: I noticed that you guys like to dress somewhat formal when playing shows; it’s something unique and something not a lot of bands do, why do you guys do it?
Pete: [While laughing] some of us.
Kelvin: We go to vintage shops and cheap places and find cool things and the whole shtick about it is like when we recorded that E.P. with mike the music sounded really lounge-y like really downtown New York, night time New York soul shit and we were like; if we are going to put on a show we’re going to put on a show you know, regardless if we are a small band or a big band.
Rob: We tried it one time and it worked and people started noticing it, so we kind of just kept with it, like we kept rolling with the punches on that one.
Kelvin: The whole opposition with it though, is like we’re not a “fashion core” band we’re there in our suits fucking getting sweaty and rockin’ out, I ripped shirts, ties like that’s the whole esthetic.
Chris: It’s like a misconception of what people would see on stage and then what they hear.

Jason: What do we need to get ready for on this new album? Give me a little summery on it.
Chris: Very dark.
Pete: Wait the new one? …it’s very good.
Chris: It’s just very dark, I don’t think we wanted it to be dark or we made the music to be dark.
Kelvin: The whole thing was that we were going through some dark times, not negatively but with just experimenting with different things and writing really dark songs, there’s not so much screaming on the record, the songs, the effects, the dark chords.
Chris: It’s more straight forward than the last record.
Kelvin: Plus Sam’s addition is amazing because this guy plays that fret like he’s plays the clitoris, we just stop and watch Sam.
Rob: Even at shows, I stopped to watch him at shows.

Jason: Recording wise, where did you guys record this new E.P. and who worked on it as far as mixing, mastering and producing?
Chris: Dave Andronice, he recorded all these bands for the scene out in the Bronx called the Bronx underground, he was cheap and his sound was getting better as I kept on listening to the recordings, we were very, very comfortable in there, he brought out some shit in all of us and it sounds really good, much better than the last E.P. we put out.

Jason: Seeing Millsted live what can we expect with the songs in general? Are you guys mixing the old stuff with the new stuff or is it just going to consist of the new songs only?
Kelvin: A dick in a box [stands up and does dick in a box dance jokingly]
Chris: It’s just a mix with this E.P. and the last E.P. with the first E.P. we usually rotate between two songs, we’ll play one a show. But we did re-record a song on the first E.P. that’s going to appear on the new E.P. which is a lot better than the older version, there’s new life in that song. So I guess we do the rotation thing but it’s mostly the last year and a half of the band, like new stuff that’s not even on this E.P. like this song called “Sad Satan” that we just did for a college project for a couple of friends of ours and that’s up on myspace to download but it hasn’t been released on anything as of yet, but I’m sure that we are going to go back and re-record it.

Jason: You guys are one of the busiest bands that I know of in this period of time personally, especially when it comes to playing live shows. I highly doubt it but are you guys taking a short break anytime soon?
Rob: [Jokingly] If Chris lets us.
Kelvin: [In humor] Jason help me, I’ve got lacerations on my back. No but really, a break is what? Not doing music and doing other bullshit when you can be making hot music, like why not just work your ass off, it’s not really a job to us we enjoy doing it.
Rob: We took a mini break for like 2 weeks at the end of the year, at the very tail end just to kind of regroup, you know recharge the battery but like we’re right back at it.
Chris: Yeah it was like a month off just to rehearse the songs, but that’s probably as far as it would ever go, we’re here to get signed and do big things and we can’t stop, we’re nobody to take a break.
Pete: You take a break and you fuck yourself.
Rob: Yeah we can’t afford to take a break at this level.
Chris: [While laughing] When we’re triple platinum then we can take a break. I think any underground band that’s not really known or who is just local and takes a break it just leads to disaster and it leads to them performing really bad, not practicing and not being around each other it would seem like a job almost. When we took that break in December we rehearsed a lot and we got into the studio to record this E.P.
Pete: It wasn’t like a dead break, we still met up with everybody.
Kelvin: We’re nobody now so we have to bust our asses and we love to do it.
Pete: You have to like who you’re in a band with or it’s not going to work.
Rob: We have a blast; we hang out outside of the studio which makes it so much cooler.

Check Millsted out here: www.myspace.com/millsted

Be sure to go out, have fun, be drunk, buy albums and check out your local music scene-Jason Franquiz