The Ghost Inside/ Attila/ Volumes Album Reviews.

I want to take a moment and talk about some news albums that came out recently, and by recently I mean within the last six months. The Ghost Inside, Attila, and Volumes all dropped some heavy stuff and I checked out all their new albums. Holy snap crackle and pop, they were extravagant. The Ghost Inside with some hardcore melodies, Attila with their IDGAF in-your-face attitude, ad Volumes with a melodic change for the better.

Once again, the Ghost Inside have proven themselves to be one of the leading bands in the hardcore scene. To all those who say they went “mainstream” and are not underground anymore, I say to you, screw that. If a band can make it big and get paid more so they can actually afford nice things instead of sticking to the underground and getting paid diddly squat for a run down apartment, I say go for it and get big. The first song “Avalanche” straight up pumps up the mood for everybody with a nice build up in the beginning and gang vocals to breakdown as a finisher. The debut song “Dear Youth” covers all aspects of a great song; powerful riffs, relatable lyrics, empowering breakdowns, and a harmony that is off the chain. Well done The Ghost Inside.

First off, Attila is not a band meant to be taken as “meaningful” or important to your life goals. They are a party hard, DGAF kind of band with a new album called “Guilty Pleasure”. With a mix between brutal exhales and rapping, Fronz (vocalist) has multiple virtuoso moments throughout the song. Some tracks make me shake my head and say “what the heck is this” but tracks like “Guilty Pleasure” and “Horse Pig” get me throwing chairs and flipping tables. Again, they are not very deep and philosophical, but they kill it live. I speak from past experiences when i say they put on a fantastic show with lights, and 8O8 drops. This new album will take their concerts to the next level. I saw an Instagram video of a huge wall of death to one of their new songs and that is enough to convince me that this new album is worth purchasing.

Last but certainly not least, Volumes. Volumes is a Djent band well-known for their breakdowns, but their album “No Sleep” was not what fans expected this album had a lot of lighter, more melodic tracks on it. Don’t get me wrong, the tracks are amazing and I am happy to hear that Volume’s use of music theory and desire to do less heavy music in their future, but Volumes received a lot of fire. In their song “The Mixture”, the lyrics say “you can have metal back” and in an interview, the vocalists said they are dropping from their label to pursue music on their own path. The album “No Sleep” is the first step in Volumes new style and wave of music, and I love every bit of it.

Thanks for reading, I am DJGingerbeard and to hear music from The Ghost Inside and Volumes (Attila is too vulgar) tune into my show “Shred the Gnar” every Thursday at 9am on http://www.kssu.com.

Album Review: “Hush or Howl” – Black Pistol Fire

 If you’re craving some classic bluesy Southern rock’n’roll, Black Pistol Fire’s  new “Hush or Howl” will give you a fix. The Canadian duo comprised of Kevin McKeown and Eric Owen relocated to Austin, TX a few years back and that’s when the magic began. With full-length LP’s released in 2011 and 2012, their third studio album is their best effort yet, with the band finding a certain level of maturity and honing their sound.

 Like a few noteable bands in their genre (The Black Keys, The White Stripes, etc.), Black Pistol Fire has a stripped down sound with McKeown on guitar/lead vocals and Owen on drums. No bass. No backing guitars. No fancy shmancy effects. Just two guys and their hard-hitting rock and roll. But unlike these other duos that crank out energetic Southern rock, BPF has a grittier garage rock edge that borders punk at times. McKeown’s gravelly vocals are thick as fog, his guitar laced with sweet, sweet reverb, and Owen’s drumming is punchy and powerful. High-voltage songs like “Alabama Coldcock” and “Hipster Shakes” establish the overall bluesy rock atmosphere of the album. However, BPF also displays their versatility with the adept fingerpicking of the banjo on “Your Turn to Cry”, the warming harmonica playing on “Grease My Wheel”, and the classic rock guitar sound on “Hush”.

Most of the criticism for this band surrounds the argument that their sound is unoriginal and they’re riding the coattails of The Black Keys’ commercial success. As someone who keeps a close eye on new trends in the music scene, this is inevitable. An artist hears something they like in another artist and incorporates some of that sound into their own music. That is the nature of trends. On the other hand, this also sets the bar higher for the new artists, so its much more impressive when they kill it, much like Black Pistol Fire has on “Hush or Howl”.

Black Pistol Fire has proved they have what it takes for success on “Hush or Howl”. While staying true to the Southern blues rock sound, they have taken it to the next level and added their own garage-y flare. Make sure to check out their upcoming tour dates and pick up a copy of “Hush or Howl” over here.

You can listen to my show, The Beat Hour, live on Tuesdays from 6-7pm on KSSU.com. I play today’s best alternative & indie music, interviews with bands, and the occasional giveaway. Tune in!

DJ Constance – Sasha Tokas

Show Review: Black Lips/The Coathangers @ Assembly – 3/25/2014

Sacramento was brought to life with a surge of vociferous energy when Black Lips and The Coathangers rolled through town last night. Those who packed the small venue of the Assembly on K Street went in for a show and came out with an experience.

The night began with the lovely ladies of The Coathangers taking the stage. I had the privilege of seeing them not once, not twice, but three times at SXSW in Austin earlier this month and I was stoked to see them perform in my hometown, to say the least. The moment they got up there, the Atlanta, GA punk-rockers had an electric stage presence. From their matching outfits to their almost-animated movements, these girls are very obviously badass. It’s not surprising they even have stage names: Minnie Coathanger (Meredith Franco) on bass/vocals, Crook Kid Coathanger (Julia Kugel) on guitar/vocals, and Rusty Coathanger (Stephanie Luke) on drums/vocals.

They played a number of oldies and hits off their new record, Suck My Shirt. Raucous numbers like “Follow Me” and “Shut Up” got fist-pumping and head-banging going on in the crowd. Sweeter tunes like “Drive” brought a certain soothing energy over everyone. What’s most impressive about The Coathangers is the versatility of each member of the band. Multiple times during their set, the ladies switched places and played each other’s instruments. Each one also sang and had a very distinctive vocal style, bringing a lot of variety to the music. I wish my fellow Sacramentans would have danced their butts off like these ladies deserved, but we’ll just have to do a better job next time they come around.

People started moving closer to the front of the room as anticipation and a strange cedar incense filled the air. I made the dangerous choice of standing smack dab, front and center for the show, not knowing what I was getting myself into. Die-hard fans to either side of me informed me of the number of times they had seen the Black Lips live and how far they had travelled. A guy behind me asked, “If I dive off the stage, will you catch me?” I laughed. Little did I know what lay ahead… The members of the Black Lips took the stage and all hell broke loose.

I have never seen an audience go as wild as they did for these Atlanta, GA punk-garage-psych rockers. Once the stage diving started a few songs in, there was no end to it. I saw shoes, bottles, and other unmentionable objects thrown on stage as displays of affection, I’m sure. Fans ran on stage to sing with the band only to literally get thrown off by some of the scariest bouncers I have ever seen. That is true devotion right there. I’ve been to punk shows before, but I’ve never been to one like this. And in Sacramento? Who knew.

As for the music itself, the Black Lips could not have been more entertaining. They played a number of songs from their old albums (not enough though according to the enraged fan to my right) and quite a few off their new record, Underneath the Rainbow. Oldies like “Modern Art” and “Family Tree” had fans rowdily singing along, while new material like “Justice After All” was well received. My personal favorite, “Boys in the Wood”, a new one, really captured the overall feel of the band and possibly what direction their music is heading to in the future.

Craziness in the crowd and all, Black Lips and The Coathangers put on a show I will probably remember for the rest of my life. Both bands really know how to make music and put on a show that brings their audience to a level beyond alive. I know Sacramento will be looking forward to their return. Make sure to catch them while they’re still on tour in the U.S. through the beginning of May.

You can listen to my show, The Beat Hour, live on Tuesdays from 6-7pm on KSSU.com. I play today’s best alternative & indie music, interviews with bands, and have the occasional giveaway. Tune in!

DJ Constance – Sasha Tokas

Interview: El Ten Eleven – 3/6/14

The musical masterminds behind El Ten Eleven, Kristian Dunn and Tim Fogarty, have been on tour promoting their new record, For Emily EP. I was able to catch up with them for a nice chat before their show at Harlow’s in Sacramento a couple weeks ago. (You can listen to the whole interview through Soundcloud at the bottom of the page or by clicking here.)

Sasha Tokas (ST): Do you guys want to introduce yourselves and tell the listeners what instruments you play?

Tim Fogarty (TF): Sure, I’m Tim. I play the drums.

Kristian Dunn (KD): I’m Kristian and I play the bass and guitar double neck and fretless bass. And, is your name Constance?

ST: Yeah, that’s my DJ name!

KD: Oh, that’s my mom’s name!

ST: Oh really?

KD: Yeah, there’s a song on our first record called “Connie” dedicated to her.

ST: Aww, that’s good to know… You guys are on tour promoting your new EP, For Emily. Can you talk a little bit about what went into making that?

TF: Hell.

KD: It’s true, we went to 4 or 5 different recording studios. Something like that. It all started, we went to New York to play a festival and Converse, the shoe company, has a recording studio in New York. We got there a day early so we could go in there and record some tracks that we thought would end up being this EP. We recorded them and thought, “Oh wow, this is the best stuff we’ve done.” Then we went and played the festival, played a bunch of other festivals, went on a tour, and we went back and listened to what we had done and we thought, “Oh no, that’s not good at all. We gotta go back to work on that.” So we went to a different studio in LA and rearranged some of the tracks, redid some of the tracks, got rid of a song, I think, and repeat that entire process I just described 3 times or 4 times. So, the songs that you hear on the EP are so dramatically different from what we originally recorded that you wouldn’t even recognize what we originally recorded mostly. So, it was a very frustrating process cause every time we thought, “We got it, we got it!”, we’d go on tour and not listen to it for a while and come back and listen again and be like, “Oh, no. This is not…”. And in fact, the EP that actually came out still to us, like we’re not even sure, we spent so much time working on it that we couldn’t see the trees because of the forest. You know that old saying? It just got to where finally, we just had to stop. We just put it out. Otherwise, we’d still be working on it and still tweaking it, which is ridiculous. We’ll hope not to ever repeat this process again cause that’s not usually how we make records.

TF: That’s exactly…

KD: Did I nail it?

TF: Yeah, as long as that answer was, is as long as it took us to make the EP.

KD: It was a metaphor for the making of that damn record!

ST: Well, it’s really good.

Both: Thank you.

ST: Since your music is instrumental and doesn’t have lyrics, is there a specific way you convey messages in your songs?

TF: We’ve never done subliminal messages…

KD: Yeah, the way you phrase that question, we should really throw in some… In this day and age, well actually, we do sell a lot of vinyl, but most people can’t play records backwards.

TF: If we had a little sizzling bacon track buried in the mix, I wonder if people would get hungry. I don’t know, you can answer that.

KD: Wait, what was the question again?

ST: Is there a way you convey messages through your music, since you don’t have lyrics in it?

KD: Oh, so usually, this is the process. I mean, if someone really likes our music and they’re wondering what these songs are about, they’ll go on Google or whatever and find interviews where we’re explaining them, and then they’ll understand. I don’t know how else you really would, just looking at the song title. Actually, people have come up to me and asked, “Is this song about this?” Sometimes they’re actually pretty close without having read an interview with us or whatever. So maybe the song title suggested enough. But really, we have to do interviews to explain.

TF: I mean, people take what they want out of it. So, a friend of ours (he’s actually our booking agent, he’s been a friend of ours for a long time). There’s a song we hadn’t been playing for a while and he’s like, “How come you guys aren’t playing that song anymore?” We’re like, “Ehh, we just, I don’t know. Doesn’t sound good anymore or whatever.” He told us this whole story about his dad passing away and how that song made him break down and cry, live, watching us one time. Which, that song was not about that. It’s actually the opposite, more of a happy song. So, I think people can get a lot of messages that weren’t intended necessarily out of it and that’s cool too. That actually, that kind of stuff means more in a way, just cause, it’s a bonus.

ST: So then, do you guys come up with the song titles first or come up with the music first and then say, “Ah, it sounds like this”, this is what were going to name it?

KD: Yeah, mostly the latter. I mean, I have a running list of song titles. Like the next record is going to be, probably mostly about my daughter. So I have this running list of song titles and the songs are being inspired by that. They’ll all kind of find themselves, the titles and the songs. Typically the music comes first. On this latest EP, the For Emily EP, we wrote these songs with nothing in mind. We were just trying to write cool songs and when it was finished, we were sitting there thinking, “What do we call them?” And when that happens, and it’s happened before, we end up coming up with titles that are dedications. “Nova Scotia”, which is the first song, is a dedication to my best friend, Matt, and I can explain why it’s called “Nova Scotia”. “Yyes!” is the second song and “Yyes” is the company that does all of our artwork and has since the very beginning, so it was a dedication to them. And then “Reprise” is actually, literally, reusing parts from some of the previous songs put back together in a third song. On this EP, they’re just dedications. When we wrote “Nova Scotia”, I wasn’t like, “This is a song about my best friend.” After it was done, I’m like, “What is this song about? Oh yeah, duh, totally is!” The song told me what it was about, if that makes sense.

ST: Ok so, since your music is instrumental, you guys have a lot of layers and depth. It’s very complex, but it’s just you two up there with your instruments and I know you use loops as well, which is amazing, but sounds very difficult to recreate live. Can you talk a little about that?

KD: Its not easy, but we’ve been doing it a while though.

TF: Yeah, its definitely not easy. When we’re making a record, we try to like… we’re always like, “Yeah! Who cares if we can do it live. Let’s just try to write a great song or a great record.” It’s always in the back of our mind that we have to pull it off live. We can’t get too, too crazy, but we don’t limit ourselves with that kind of stuff. And then it always ends up when we try to go play some of that stuff live. Cause some songs we actually do play before we record them and they’re fine live. You know, we’ve already worked them out live. With other ones we kind of write as songs and then we go and try to play them live and it’s like, “Ooh, this is not easy!” It’s like, we have to do two different parts at the same time now. So you know, sometimes they’re a little bit different from the record. It’ll take longer to build parts up cause we have to keep looping and that part gets set, and put another part over it. There’s some songs where a couple things will come in at the same time, which is pretty impossible if you don’t have stuff to record it, which we’ve never done. So, it’s hard, but it’s our own fault. At least we don’t have to sing too.

KD: I do have dreams… I’m so happy with everything that’s happening with El Ten Eleven. We’re very fortunate, very grateful. It’s incredible how things are going. But, I do have dreams sometimes of just playing bass in a punk band. That’s it. All I have to do is play bass; I don’t have to do loops, I don’t have to talk to the audience, that’d be so easy.

ST: What’s the most memorable thing that happened to you guys on tour?

TF: Man, there’s been so many. It’s hard to say just one thing. There’s never been that crazy, crazy thing where like, I got punched by a cop or something like that. We have a lot of little stories that are funny and cool. We were in Chicago, packed up, just got ready to leave, and we were getting ready to pull out and there was like kind of commotion, a crowd full of people walking on the sidewalk. We looked back and a guy just punched a girl out! We’re just like, “Whaaat?!” So, I hate fighting, I’m not a fighter and I didn’t want to get involved, but I was a little hammered and the guy walked past my window rolled down and I was like, “F—— p—-, you punched a girl!” Can I say that?

ST: I can edit it.

TF: Sorry! I was just being accurate. He comes over and I was like, aww man, he’s going to punch me now. I was just trying to back up this girl. So I’m like “S—, Chris, pull away, like I don’t, come on, you know me.” I’m just like, great, I’m sitting in the front seat. I’m going to get decked. And he just punches our mirror out and we leave. I think, wasn’t the girl like hanging back on him or something? It was his girlfriend! So I’m trying to stick up for a girl who takes that s— apparently. So it’s like, you know what? From now on, I’m out of it…

ST: You guys have seen a lot of people get punched!

TF: I know!

KD: You know, if you think about it, we’ve played something like 700 shows or something and every place we’ve played pretty much has alcohol (there’s some exceptions). The amount of fights we’ve witnessed are so small when you consider. I think generally speaking, people who come to our shows are smart people. Honestly, I’m not being boastful, I’m being honest. I think we have kind of an intelligent crowd. It’s not dumb, like “Duh!” With all the alcohol that’s been around our shows for that many years, you’d think we would have witnessed a lot…

TF: I feel like I’ve never seen a fight at our show before.

KD: Yeah, I don’t think. I mean there’s probably been a couple of them outside after. We’ve almost gotten in a couple before. Note to people who own clubs: Don’t give the band that’s packing their stuff up and trying to leave a hard time about leaving faster.

TF: Oh! That’s right that’s right! That’s Boston.

ST: Now I’m curious…

KD: It’s not that great of a story, I just almost punched someone in the face. It’s just a pet peeve of ours. Especially because we used to tour just the two of us and we’d bring our own lights, do our own merch, do everything. And we’d finish the show and we’d, you know, have to talk to fans and like, sell stuff, and immediately start packing our stuff up, trying to get out. Then there’d be some bartender like, “Time to go guys, lets f—— go.” And we’re like, “F— you! What’s the f— does it look like we’re doing?” Like, we’re trying to get out of here, we want to go home too. It would just enrage us. Like, dude, we just made you a bunch of money. You’re going to give us a hard time? Sorry, it’s a little pet peeve. Anyway, in Boston one person took it a little too far and almost got my fist in his nose. It ended up being okay.

ST: So bartenders beware.

TF: Doorman.

KD: Soundman.

ST: All of them.

TF: All of them.

KD: You want it to go faster, help us with our f——- gear. I’m getting all riled up right now!

ST: So surprising coming from… your guys’ music is so calming, you know, so I’m like, where’s all this coming from?

KD: Yeah, right?! Like it would take a lot for us to get in a fight, but when people throw that s— out, like “Aww dude, no, should not have said that!” This is going to be ugly now.

TF: Or taking the last beer of the green room. That’s my pet peeve.

KD: Ooh! That’s a bad one too. This is for all you bands out there who are the opening band: Don’t drink the headliner’s alcohol without permission and even if you do have permission, make sure you leave a couple beers for them when they get off stage. Cause its kind of nice to get off stage and have a beer! Like we don’t need to get hammered or anything, but there was a tour we did and this opening band that will remain nameless that was on the tour with us, every night they would drink all of it, everything. And we had done something like 10 shows in a row with long drives, we were just absolutely exhausted and we got off stage in Salt Lake City, I remember, and Tim walked into the dressing room and there was no beer and there was a case of water just like that [pointing to a case of water on the table]. And he just picked it up and threw it against the wall, right as the promoter was walking into the room. It was a female and she just walked in and saw it and went, “Oop…” and walked back out right as I was walking in. I saw her walk back out kinda scared and thought, “What the hell just happened?”

TF: I can explain! I f—– hate water!

KD: This guy hates water!

TF: I swore again, I’m sorry.

ST: It’s ok!

KD: Is this interview going how you expected?

ST: No! But it’s ok! You guys are giving me a lot to work with. I like it when you guys do that. So how has the experience of being in El Ten Eleven impacted your life? 

TF: I don’t know what I’d be doing otherwise. I don’t know. Not that like it’s, I don’t know, I’m not living in a mansion or anything, but I’ve seen a lot of stuff I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. I don’t know, actually it’s cool because I never thought we’d be together this long, I never thought… I can remember not being sure that the first record would even be good enough or even, like, ready for primetime. So, it’s pretty crazy, it’s been slow and steady and that’s been awesome, actually. My family doesn’t think I’m such a jack— anymore. I told them, I’ve got this under control, I know it seems crazy playing music but…

KD: When my high school friends see me play, they’re expecting it to be in a divey bar like “Oh, Kristian’s still doing the music thing.” Then they’ll come to the show like, “Oh! Whoah, this is actually legit!”

TF: People actually give a crap.

ST: Ok, so now I’m going to move onto some random questions…

KD: Ooh! These are our favorite.

ST: Mine too! Design your perfect sandwich.

TF: Ah, we’ve gotten asked this before!

KD: A money sandwich!

TF: Did I say that?

KD: You were the one that said that. Cause I went with like an expensive food, like lobster or something. You’re like, “A money sandwich”. Ahh! That’s brilliant! I remember we got asked that in… ahh whatever, it doesn’t matter.

TF: As long as it has something crunchy on it…

KD: A thousand dollar bills!

TF: The sandwich has to have chips. I had a bacon and peanut butter sandwich the other day on an English muffin. Have you ever had that?

ST: No, that sounds kinda weird…

TF: You like peanut butter?

ST: I like both a lot.

TF: Alright, so, English muffin; can’t do it on bread, its not good. English muffin, peanut butter, other English muffin, peanut butter, tons of super crispy bacon, can’t be the soggy, fatty stuff. Mash it all together, it’s like a dessert. They should serve that for dessert.

ST: Sounds pretty good actually, in a weird way. 

KD: Not as good as a money sandwich.

TF: So I didn’t design it, that’s my dad, passed that on. Try it.

ST: Alright, I will. So, what was the last thing that gave you a good laugh?

KD: We kinda laugh a lot on this tour. You know what’s kinda interesting about El Ten Eleven, it’s pretty serious music and stuff, but we’re total goofballs and Tim actually should’ve, if he was more confident, he could’ve been a stand-up comedian or impersonator. He cracks us up constantly. He says so much s— that’s funny, all day long, I can’t even remember all this.

TF: I’m trying to think what was the last time… that’s why I don’t have a mic though. I don’t want to say crazy stuff. Like, we’re trying to be serious up there, like really, you’re going to do that?

KD: But it makes me happy so you should dude. Cause, you know, it’s the same thing every night, it’s great, I’m not complaining, but Tim, cause we did try having him have a mic and it was just entertaining for me. Remember we had a delay on your voice?

TF: Yeah, I was doing Robert Plant.

KD: Led Zeppelin! Everyone was all serious and having been moved by the music and Tim’s all, “Ahh ahh ahh ahh! [impersonating Robert Plant].” Like, ah, this is great.

TF: I did the whole Dazed and Confused. I don’t remember, what was my last hard laugh? Like, tears in my eyes laugh? I can’t remember.

KD: As soon as you turn that off [pointing to my recorder], I’ll remember… We haven’t really messed with each other too much this tour. Yeah, this tour’s been pretty mellow.

TF: We usually pull lots of pranks on each other. I hit him [motioning towards tour manager], with a thing of cheese in the nuts.

KD: Oh, that was good! I remember, that was in Ann Arbor.

TF: No, that was this tour when I threw a thing of cheese, you know in the green room, like lunchmeat, and we just had it in our van and it was like, we didn’t have a cooler or anything to keep it. So, I just threw it like a frisbee, trying to hit the camera, and it just went like… and it was like “Oh!!!”…

ST: So, this is kinda similar to the last one, what is the last thing that left a really big impression on you?

KD: Just anything in life?

ST: Anything, anything in life. Something that really touched you, moved you maybe.

KD: Well, that’s easy for me because I have a two-year-old daughter. So, every day she does something that is amazing and it’s like, oh my God. That’s kinda cheating.

ST: That’s a good answer.

KD: Well, it’s true.

TF: I don’t know. Like, I’ve had a bunch of family friends, parents, stuff like that, die recently and so, I don’t know, it’s been a little more of like, taking a second. Being like, “Ah, man.” Like, here we go. We’re dying now. I like to laugh, but there’s always something in the back of my mind that’s just like, ahh, f—.

KD: That’s why we laugh; to try to bury it. That’s why we do tons of drugs and drinks tons of alcohol; to bury our pain.

TF: It works!

KD: See? Look it, we’re laughing! I could cry instantly if I wanted to, but I’m going to have another drink.

TF: I could too.

ST: Can you describe what you would do on your perfect Friday night?

TF: Can I make mine a Saturday?

ST: Yes, you can make yours a Saturday.

TF: Watch Cops. That’s what I do, Saturday. I don’t have cable anymore, so I have to do this some other time, but let’s see. I would make dinner, that’s probably not that great, but good for me, probably drink something, and watch Cops. Two back-to-back Cops: one new, one old. Whatever happens after that, doesn’t matter. It’s perfect.

KD: I concur with that. That seems pretty… you gotta understand, we’re in bars, venues, clubs, on tour night after night after night, hearing music. So to us, to go out and see live music, it’s just not appealing really.

TF: Yeah, just to be home, watching Cops, it’s like, that’s paradise. I mean, I could say being on a beach, which would be awesome.

KD: In the soft sand, with water lapping on my legs, with a TV, watching Cops. Pork taco.

ST: If there was a song that would be on the soundtrack of your life, whether it’s your own from El Ten Eleven, or something else, what would it be?

TF: I have something, it wouldn’t be ours though. There might be a couple or something. Well, if it’s the soundtrack to my life, yeah, because so much of these songs have been part of my life.

KD: Yeah, it’d be hard not to include.

TF: Umm…man! Good question! Bad answer.

ST: You can pick multiple songs if you want. It can be an album soundtrack to your life.

KD: Would this be after I’m dead?

ST: It could be if you wanted it to be.

KD: I’m just trying to think, if I wasn’t around to explain, because if I was around to explain, just knowing me, I’d probably put stuff on there that I wanted people to hear, to turn them onto or something, cause that’s just how I am. You know, you’re a DJ, that’s what you do. But then, if it was a soundtrack to my life for me, like only I would be listening to, on a desert island or whatever, the choices might be pretty different. So, it’s hard.

TF: I think mine’s going to be “Climax” by Usher, because I’m going to nail it in karaoke.

KD: These guys [Tim and the tour manager] have been f—— singing that song! They were singing it and he really is a good singer, actually both these guys, in the van, they’ll turn on the karaoke version and sing it together. It sounds f—— good! Really good! That’s not an easy song to sing.

TF: Yeah, I think my whole soundtrack would be all karaoke versions of songs. I wanna do a “Bones Thugs N Harmony”, I wanna do Crossroads with him cause he knows most of the words and I’ve tried to learn them, but they’re really hard. Motorhead is another one.

KD: He’s really good at singing the “Ace of Spades”. Can you give her just a little bit?

TF: No, I can’t just jump into it, it’s not that easy. I need to put jean shorts on.

KD: Need to put a wart on your face.

ST: Should’ve brought a karaoke machine!

TF: Aw! Is there good karaoke…? Ah, shoot, we have to leave right after the show tonight because we have a super long drive.

KD: We don’t get to hang out in Sac. Does it offend you when people say Sac?

ST: Nah, I call it Sac all the time. Yeah, I think most of us do.

TF: If you put a “k” on it, that’s a little offensive.

ST: Yeah, that’s weird.

KD: Sac. Sac-k-k.

TF: Sack.

KD: The “k” is silent!

TF: Come on bro.

ST: My last question, what can we expect in the future from El Ten Eleven? 

TF: Lot’s of stuff. I’m excited. When we’re on tour, I’m always excited to go home and start working on new stuff. We always have to stop working on new stuff to leave for a tour, generally. This time, that was totally the way it was. Like, we’ll get together to practice and it’s like, man we gotta leave for the tour and I’m like, should we work on new stuff or work on the set? Ah, let’s just work on new stuff! And then we’re like, ah crap, we should’ve worked on the set a week ago because things aren’t running.

KD: Yeah, the first few shows of tour are always kind of, sh—-, or, always kind of crappy, because of exactly that. We should’ve been working on the set, but we were excited about new stuff and we just put it to the last minute and were like, “Oh, we don’t really have this together yet.” Sorry Phoenix! It’s always Phoenix.

TF: Sometimes they get the last show of the tour though.

KD: Yeah, every once in a while they get it. The last show of the tour are typically good because we have the tour shots, we got it all together, unless we’re fried and thinking about going home. We have the material, we’re getting the material together to record another full-length record. We’re planning on doing that all summer long. We’re going to take a break from touring and just do a few festivals, some one-offs here and there. Probably not even tour in the fall. Like, we might do two weeks in Europe or something. Just fully devote to recording a new record, getting it together, and then having it come out at the end of the year, beginning of next year. That’s where our mind are kind of. I mean, in the middle of a tour, we’re thinking about the tour and stuff, but we are, I agree with Tim. I’m excited to get back to working on new stuff and see what we can come up with and hopefully try to top ourselves.

ST: We’ll be looking forward to it. 

KD: Thanks! I hope it’s really, pure intention.

TF: I think it’s going to be great. I’m excited.

ST: Well, that’s about it for the interview. Thanks for talking with me guys!

KD: Thank you, Constance!

TF: Yay, somebody gives a s—!

Note: This interview isn’t word for word. The transcribed text is my interpretation, but you can listen to the whole interview on the Soundcloud link below.

You can listen to my show, The Beat Hour, live on Tuesdays from 6-7pm on KSSU.com. I play today’s best alternative & indie music, interviews with bands, and have the occasional giveaway. Tune in!

DJ Constance – Sasha Tokas

Interview: Aan – 3/1/2014

Over the weekend, Portland based Aan put on an excellent show at Luigi’s Fungarden here in Sacramento. They are promoting their new album, Amor Ad Nauseum, and on tour headed down to SXSW in Austin next week. I was able to chat with them after their set.

Sasha Tokas (ST): You guys are on tour promoting your new album, Amor Ad Nauseam; are the name of your band and the album titled related?

Bud Wilson (BW): Yes, absolutely. In part the album title is to dispel the curiosities of folks who ask what A-A-N means all the time. So, although its sort of asinine because Aan is not an acronym. I think the whole point of the band is just to create those strange moments where you’re like, “I don’t know what the heck’s going on.”

ST: Can you talk a little about recording the album and how it came to be; the process behind putting it all together?

BW: Yes, it was gradual. We started strong, we went out to a cabin and did a bit of basically laying out the framework for the record and recorded some drum tracks and bass and finished one piece fairly quickly and then, as well we ran out of money and then came back into town.

Jon Lewis (JL): We got cabin fever.

BW: Yeah, we got cabin fever. Got real weird. Then once we were back in town we would sporadically go in and work on tracks and just explore the studio a bit. That’s part of that record, just an exploration of the studio and also sort of became music school for us.

Reese Lawhon (RL): Some of the songs pretty much, literally came about in the studio. We wrote them, before we played them together live or anything and just kinda crafted, you know, a piece of music and then, been learning how to play it ever since.

JL: We all came in with like a rough draft basically.

BW: Exactly. And the goal was for it to be a sort of visual record. That was the one point that was going to be made from the beginning, was that it didn’t listen like a live record, it listened as a… you know you’d sit down with headphones on and go through each track linearly. You can still jump around, but it’s supposed to sort of listen in a cinematic way.

ST: What’s happening to the poor dog on the album cover?

RL: Yeah a lot of people, some people were really disturbed by it. Been getting kind of hate mail about it.

JL: Someone wrote us and they like Aan a lot and then…

RL: But the album cover’s horrible!

JL: Someone replied to them and they were like “Yeah, I love your music, but this cover makes me not really wanna listen to it anymore.”

RL: Which, you know, is understandable.

BW: We would say like, you hate the cover… What do you think the dog feels?

Patrick Phillips (PP): It’s not like we, it’s not like anybody… A dog ran into a porcupine.

JL: It’s not like we got the quills from the porcupine and just threw it at the dog.

PP: It’s not like we had a little, like, blow-dart gun and were torturing an animal.

BW: Absolutely not.

PP: These things happen.

BW: What happened, I’ll tell the story.

ST: Do you know the dog?

BW: Yes, the dog is my lady friend’s mother’s dog. She’s 12 years old, her name’s Maya and she’s fine. That’s the third time that she’s attacked a porcupine. She’s very well known at the veterinarian’s office. This photo was just captured by the veterinarian before she was treated getting all those quills removed.

RL: And she’s fine. We just liked the image and how it relates to the album title.

BW: And a lot of the subject matter on the record, sort of, doing things that you know are bad, continuously.

ST: Can you talk a little about the beginnings of the band and how you guys formed, met each other?

BW: Yeah, it started as a solo project for me (this is Bud) and then I was playing in a band with Reese and brought Reese in and some other members of that band. As time went on people would come in and out. It’s been a three-piece, it’s been a four-piece, it’s been a two-piece, but it never really coalesced until Jon went to the East Coast with us for a tour and I think we started to understand the process of music making as well as the business end and what it takes to be serious. That was probably almost three years ago, or it was three years ago, and Jon brings a lot of enthusiasm to the band and I’m more of the creative minded person so it’s important to balance those two things out. Then Patrick has come on with the band about six months ago and been touring with us. The next record will be with Patrick and it will probably be a lot more of a different direction, but within the same… Things that you would expect from us, but with an emphasis on more, probably more rhythmic things.

ST: It’s kind of unfortunate, but inevitable that bands get labeled under specific genre names and all that. So before people start saying “Oh, Aan is this kind of music or that kind of music”, what do you guys want to be seen as?

BW: I think we want to be understood as just, playing with pop structure. At the end of the day, we’re a pop band. Can’t really not be. You know, so, experimental pop to some degree with atmospheric rock touches. My mom wrote in our local, where I grew up, there’s a newspaper that goes out to about 250 people and she wrote an article in the newspaper and it’s called… What’s it called? It was like “psych-tinged atmospheric rock pop”. Something like that.

JL: It’s pretty accurate.

RL: Decent description, better than a lot of the other ones we’ve had.

BW: Good job mom.

JL: Freak folk. That’s a good one.

RL: Well, we used to be more freak folky, I suppose.

BW: Just ridin’ the wave.

PP: So whatever’s the coolest new thing.

BW: It’s difficult to say what we are, I think what’s happening is what we feel like doing. We don’t put limits on anything.

ST: For your “Somewhere’s Sunshine” video, did you guys come up with the concept for that music video?

BW: No, we didn’t. Some friends of ours have a production company called KYDJ, which is “Keep Your Day Job”, and they’ve always got really good ideas. They took the helm on that one and we just had all the cowboy clothes shipped from my parents, who are ranchers. And then that was it.

RL: Dragged us all out to a field at 6 in the morning and shot til sundown.

BW: Yeah, 6 to 9. 6am. 9pm. It was hellish.

ST: Is there a message behind the music video?

BW: People keep asking that. There must be some underlying philosophical thing there, but they haven’t told us what it is.

ST: Left open for interpretation, right?

BW: Yeah, the best always are.

ST: What was it like going on tour with the Smashing Pumpkins?

JL: It felt like a job. Well, I mean, this is a job, but we also have fun at our job.

RL: It was surreal.

BW: I’ll just do it cause you guys are taking too long. We’re on the radio, they can’t see your cool face. It was really fun, but it was also like music school because we felt like little fish in a gigantic ocean. But we learned so much and met the members of the then Smashing Pumpkins and they were great. It was super cool, it was probably one of the coolest things to ever happen to any of us.

JL: I remember hearing “Zero” when I was, I don’t know, 9 years old at my friends house, like behind my neighborhood and just like freaking out. And then, I don’t know, what was that, like 20 years later, I’m opening for them.

RL: Yeah, definitely never would have thought that we would be opening for this band at some point. It was surreal, but it was super fun. Their whole crew was super nice to us, accommodating. Glad we did it.

BW: Personal growth.

JL: Got rained on everyday too.

ST: Ok, so for some random questions now. How would you guys prepare the perfect bowl of oatmeal?

JL: This is Reese’s.

RL: Well, I probably eat the most oatmeal of the band. I like my oatmeal with some brown sugar or some sort of syrup, berries, and almonds. That’s all I really need.

PP: I usually go savory. Sometimes, like to mix it up, do like…bacon, Sriracha, and egg. I’ve done that one before, its pretty good.

BW: Gross.

JL: Dude, egg in oatmeal?

PP: Don’t knock it til you try it.

BW: I don’t eat oatmeal. I don’t believe in breakfast.

JL: (To Patrick) You put Sriracha on your Pacifico.

RL: Bud does not believe in breakfast, very true.

BW: Its one of my least favorite things: breakfast. Truly. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I’d just rather have lunch.

JL: Bud just eats two lunches.

BW: Yeah, I don’t even really eat dinner.

JL: He just eats three lunches. Keeps you going.

ST: What was the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen in your life?

BW: Beautiful thing I’ve ever seen… Its probably on DMT.

JL: I was about to say rainbows on mushrooms.

BW: Yeah, I’m sure it was a psychedelic experience. I mean, if we’re gonna be honest, I’m sure it was some profound psychedelic experience.

PP: I was at church. I was a young man then and, uh, sometimes you get to peek behind the veil and see, uh, see something really beautiful like, I don’t know.

BW: Where you going with that?

RL: It was Billy Corgan in his white robe. The most beautiful thing.

JL: Eating noodle salad on a couch.

RL: Which is pretty much how we met him.

PP: Its probably the day Bud was born. I saw him emerge. It was one of the most beautiful things. Just crawling out, a full-grown man.

BW: Thanks dad. Patrick’s also my father.

ST: If you guys could pick a mascot for the band, what would it be?

JL: Easy…

ALL: Chupacabra!

BW: Absolutely, it’s our spirit animal.

ST: You guys had that one ready!

PP: Is this the chupacabra or the…

BW: Jon has “Chupa” tattooed on his…

RL: Since we’ve been touring together, Jon, Bud, and I…

JL: (To Patrick) You might like rabbits, but we like chupacabras.

RL: The chupacabra’s by far our spirit animal, mascot, whatever you want to call it.

JL: The elusive chupacabra.

BW: When we find the chupacabra, which we are looking for…

JL: We’ve been searching…

BW: Jon will get “cabra” tattooed on his arm because currently he only has “Chupa” tattooed on his arm, which is…

JL: To suck.

RL: We got homemade tattoos the last time we were in Austin for SXSW.

JL: We were staying with my friend and he bought a tattoo gun, like, I don’t know, when. But, he never tattooed anyone, so I just gave him this idea of giving me a tattoo cause he needed practice. He wants to do this. So, I just had him tattoo “Chupa” on my…

BW: Yeah, its his upper arm. It says “Chupa” in papyrus font.

PP: What’s really great is that, I have a really great picture of Jon with his shirt off that will hit the internet really soon. Actually, it already did hit the internet and somebody commented on it. They’re like, “Sick chalupa… sick chalupa tat!” Its like… my friends aren’t very smart.

JL: Yeah, I love chalupas. Especially when the Blazers win, I get a free chalupa.

BW: Not anymore.

JL: Yeah, that’s true.

ST: Ok so, last question, what can we expect in the future from Aan?

BW: Trying to get a record out again this year. If anything we’ll be writing new music as soon as we get back from this tour and hopefully supporting some larger bands in the near future. Like I said, trying to put some new pieces of music out by the end of the year.

RL: As soon as possible.

BW: Just trying to turn pro.

PP: Probably expect to see the Smashing Pumpkins opening for us.

JL: Once Billy reforms the band for the third time, they might be opening for us.

RL: On the Mogwai/GRMLN tour.

BW: We are not loved by Pumpkins’ fans anymore.

JL: Yeah, I don’t think so.

BW: We blew that one hardcore. And we don’t even mean to! Obviously we’re fans, and we didn’t have any bad experiences, but we sure say some dumb stuff sometimes.

RL: We’re talking about the hardcore Pumpkin fans.

BW: Yeah, the guys who run blogs.

JL: The 40 year olds.

BW: We love you.

JL: Billy Corgan’s neighbor, I don’t know.

ST: Thank you guys so much for speaking with me tonight.

All: Thank you.

BW: Our pleasure.

Note: This interview isn’t word for word. I interpreted it as best I could, but if you want to listen for yourself, click here and it will direct you to Soundcloud.

You can listen to my show, The Beat Hour, live on Tuesdays from 6-7pm on KSSU.com. I play today’s best alternative & indie music, interviews with bands, and the occasional giveaway. Tune in!

DJ Constance – Sasha Tokas

Album Review: “Bad Things” – Bad Things

Now that the Snowboarding Halfpipe event at the Sochi Olympics is over, you may be feeling that there’s not enough Shaun White  in your life anymore. Well, lucky for you, the two-time Olympic gold medalist snowboarder is in a band, Bad Things, and they just released their debut album on January 21st. A perfect remedy for those post-Olympic-Halfpipe blues.

Contrary to what you might have guessed, White is not trying to transition from famous athlete to famous rockstar frontman. While he takes on the duties of lead guitar, lead vocals come from bandmate Davis LeDuke. They are joined by Anthony Sanudo on guitar, Jared Palomar on bass, and Lena Zawaideh on the drums. Although formed fairly recently, the quintet has already signed on with Warner Brothers Records, played a few live shows, and even appeared at Lollapalooza back in August.

Upon listening to their self-titled debut album, I was thoroughly impressed. While it may have been easy to get away with promoting an album entirely on White’s fame, Bad Things prove that they have real talent. LeDuke’s commanding vocals are complimented perfectly by Zawaideh’s pleasant backing vocals. Full of catchy hooks, enchanting harmonies, driving guitars, and beats that will move you to dance, the entire album is laced with earworm tracks.

The album’s first single, “Anybody”, has an indie rock feel reminiscent of Kaiser Chiefs while their second single, “Caught Inside”, has more pop elements similar to the style of fellow LA-band, The Colourist. My personal favorite track, “Saturday Night”, combines these two elements and showcases the band’s overall vibe. You can watch the official video for “Caught Inside”, which they just uploaded two days ago, below.

Bad Things is a great listen and an exciting introduction to the band. Now that the Olympics are coming to an end and White’s schedule is hopefully clearing up, keep your ears open for an upcoming tour. Bad Things is a show I definitely would not want to miss.

You can listen to my show, The Beat Hour, live on Tuesdays from 6-7pm on KSSU.com. I play today’s best alternative & indie music, interviews with bands, and the occasional giveaway. Tune in!

DJ Constance – Sasha Tokas

Interview: The Dodos – 9/5/2013

          The Dodos released their new and well-received album, Carrier, on August 27th. After an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman a week later, they were back in California and ready to start three months of touring. The first official show to kick off the tour was here in Sacramento on September 5th at Harlow’s Restaurant and Nightclub. Before the show, I was able to catch up with lead guitar and vocals man, Meric Long. We discussed the creative process behind recording their new album, a bit of the band’s personal history, and the road ahead. To listen to the whole interview, use the soundcloud player below and stream.

The sound those three guys can make on stage is quite impressive. The Dodos put on one hell of a show, so make sure to check out The Dodos website to see if they’ll be coming through your town. While you’re at it, give their single, Confidence, a listen. You can buy the new album, Carrier, in their online store.

You can listen to my show, The Beat Hour, live on Tuesdays from 6-7pm on KSSU.com. I play today’s best alternative & indie music, interviews with bands, and the occasional giveaway. Tune in!

DJ Constance

Album Review: “Lido EP” – The Colourist

The Colourist is one of the few indie bands that has regularly and often appeared in the music blogosphere in the last year, while still impressing me each and every time. Their new Lido EP only has four songs, but it deserves as much attention as a full-length album in my books.

I first encountered The Colourist when they opened for Electric Guest in November 2012 at The Independent in San Francisco. Adam Castilla’s comforting voice and Maya Tuttle’s ability to rock out on the drums while still sounding angellic made for an excellent show. They left quite an impression on me and their song “Wishing Wells” found it’s way onto my mp3 player, radio show, and in all the tiny cracks & crevices of my mind. Their singles and countless remixes popped up all over the interwebs. Last month I saw them open for Fitz & the Tantrums here in Sacramento and was as equally pleased as the first time.

Although Lido EP only clocks in at a little over twelve minutes, it left me hungry for more. The L.A.-based band blend indie pop and rock seamlessly to create an upbeat tone with plenty of catchy hooks. Castilla and Tuttle’s voices are like a cup of English Breakfast tea and milk; invigorating, comforting, warm, and delicious. They compliment each other perfectly. Guitars, drums, bass, and vocals are all balanced, without any overpowering the other. “Little Games” is definitely the one song on the album that is sure to please everyone on first listen, although “Yes Yes” is my personal favorite.

I have a sneaking suspicion that we’ll be seeing a lot more from these guys in the future. The Colourist will be on tour through the fall, so check out the dates on their website to see if they’ll be coming through your town. Don’t forget to give Lido EP a listen and join me in my gloom that they don’t have more music out. Cheers!

You can listen to my show, The Beat Hour, live on Tuesdays from 6-7pm on KSSU.com. I play today’s best alternative & indie music, interviews with bands, and the occasional giveaway. Tune in!

DJ Constance – Sasha Tokas

Album Review: “Carrier” – Dodos

The first time I came across the Dodos was when I heard their song, “Black Night”, off their 2008 album, Visiter. I probably played that song on repeat for a day until I forced myself to find some other songs of theirs and mix it up a bit. To this day, every time “Black Night” comes up on shuffle, I subconsciously reach for the volume, turn it up, start bobbing my head to the infectious beat, and if I’m in the car, roll down the windows and start singing. Judge all you want.

When I heard they were coming out with a new record on Polyvinyl Records, I was ecstatic to say the least. I got my hands on “Carrier” this morning and am already on my fifth listen. I was expecting to find a few new favorites to add to my Dodos library. What I was not expecting was to fall in love with every song. “Carrier” comes together in a way that each song brings something to the whole album and really should be listened to all the way through, at least on the first listen.

Like many great albums before, “Carrier” is unfortunately reflective on the passing of a dear friend to the band, guitarist Chris Reimer. However, instead of creating a melancholy and gloomy album, the Dodos thoughtfully put together a piece of work that is soft, but powerful. The main word that comes to my mind upon listening to it over and over is “beautiful”. Yeah, that mind sound cliché, but it’s the truth. From Meric Long’s haunting and soothing voice, the crisp guitar work, and Logan Kroeber’s skillful and poignant drumming, the duo has put out their best work to date. With no over-the-top studio production and a focus on clear instrumentation and vocals, “Carrier” is pure, raw sound.

The Dodos

While I said every song is equally great and deserves a listen, I know in this busy world, taking the time to sit and listen to an album all the way through is a hefty request. If I had to recommend only one song from the album, it would be “Confidence”. The song, which is the first single, starts off gentle with Long’s voice over bright guitars. Kroeber joins in with his impeccable drumming and the tempo changes noticeably twice, leading to a thundering and compelling sound in the end. The progression is flawlessly executed.

Luckily for those of us in Sacramento, the Dodos are a San Francisco based band and will be coming through our own hometown in a couple of weeks. They will be playing at Harlow’s on Thursday, September 5th. Head over to the website and make sure to get tickets before they sell out! And don’t forget to give “Carrier” a listen.

You can listen to my show, The Beat Hour, live on Tuesdays from 6-7pm on KSSU.com. I play today’s best alternative & indie music, interviews with bands, and the occasional giveaway. Tune in!

DJ Constance – Sasha Tokas

Show Review: Best Coast/Bleached @ The Fillmore – 8/15/2013

Is there a better way to spend an August night than in a full house at The Fillmore in San Francisco, watching the king and queen of California surf rock take the stage and hearts of their faithful Norcal subjects? No, there is not. Best Coast in the summertime: this is as good as life gets.

Bleached

The summery-Calfornia-themed night started off with the indie-rock duo, Bleached. Fronted by sisters, Jessica and Jennifer Clavin, the girls got the crowd moving and in the right mood. With a noticeable garage-rock and punk feel, the Clavin sisters brought their audience to life with some serious head bobbing and foot tapping. I had the sneaking suspicion that if people weren’t saving their energy for later in the evening, there would have been some epic moshing, too. While playing older classics like “Think of You”, songs off their new album, Ride Your Heart, like “Dead in Your Head” and “Next Stop” were well-received. Though their set was short, I could have watched them for another hour at least. Bleached put on an awesome show and are definitely going to be a band I’ll be keeping tabs on for future shows and more rad music!

By the time Best Coast came out on stage, the Fillmore was so packed it seemed like it was about to burst from the seams. The only way to really experience live music: hot, sweaty, and borderline claustrophobic. In a bit of irony, the band started playing, Bethany Cosentino’s sweet voice glazed the room, and the set began with the song, “Goodbye”. Immediately I was impressed by the level of production. The music was loud, but you could clearly hear each instrument and Cosentino’s voice. Quite impressive.

The next song that they played was the popular, “The Only Place”, a song about sitting around at the beach, out in the sun, and how California is pretty much the best place in the world. Obviously. Cosentino sang out, “Why would you live anywhere else?… This is the only place for me” and the San Franciscan crowd went wild. Her angellic voice translated surprisingly well live and perhaps even better than recorded; something that cannot be said for many musicians today that rely on in-studio production to jazz up their voice. Bobb Bruno’s distinctive guitar sound was spot-on as ever.

Cosentino’s dynamic personality gave her a glowing stage presence. Consistently interacting with her bandmates and the crowd between songs, the show felt incredibly interactive. At one point she informed the audience, “We’re gonna play a lot of new songs and sweat a lot”. She announced the release of their new Fade Away EP, due to appear in the upcoming months. That sent a wave of excitement around the room. Cosentino also asked for requests of covers people wanted to hear her sing. Accompanied by her talented band, she did a compelling rendition of The Cranberries’, “Dreams”, in her own style.

Best Coast

“When I’m With You” ended up being a sing-a-long with the audience, Cosentino forgot the words to “Each and Every Day”, laughed it off, and ended with a little song to say “Thank You” to everyone. Of course, claps and chanting of “Best Coast” brought the band out for an encore performance. Cosentino dedicated the last song, “Boyfriend”, to all of the single ladies in the crowd and they left to boisterous cheers and applause.

Best Coast puts on one heck of a show, that’s for sure. I will definitely see them again next time they come through Northern California. Don’t forget to check out their EP, Fade Away, when it comes out sometime in early Fall.

You can listen to my show, The Beat Hour, live on Tuesdays from 6-7pm on KSSU.com. I play today’s best alternative & indie music, interviews with bands, and the occasional giveaway. Tune in!

DJ Constance – Sasha Tokas