Melbourne-based musician, Yeo, makes big, bright, electro-pop with an ambient touch. Last year’s hazy single, “Girl”, and his new song, the infectious “Kobe”, have helped generate more than a little Internet buzz around his synth-y anthems. Quip recently caught up with him during his CMW showcase to talk about his musical background and his forthcoming EP.

Eric Smale: What made you first start playing music? Have you been doing it for a long time?

Yeo: Yeah, I’ve been doing it for about nine, ten years now, which is a really big number in my head (laughs). But I started because – I was kind of just mucking around with it, and I was always naturally good at music, but didn’t know what to do with it. I finally put together some stuff that was completely mine, and then it got played on national radio in Australia, and that kind of gave me the confidence to keep going, you know what I mean?

ES: Was there a specific artist or album growing up that made you initially want to start doing your own stuff?

Y: Obviously, as you grow up listening to music, you think you like things or you genuinely like things, and they kind of mold your sensibilities. But after a while, when you reach a particular stage, there’s one guy or a band who comes by and knocks you off your feet. That guy was Pharrell. And this was old Pharrell – I mean, I like the stuff he’s doing now, but the stuff he was doing back in N.E.R.D., that was my jam, that was what I liked, and I tried to copy him a lot. Then he copied me. I released a song called ‘Girl’ and then he put – (laughs) no, I’m not going to claim that.

ES: Your music draws from many different genres and sounds, but it still fits into a pop format. What is it about pop music that you find so compelling?

Y: I like how accessible pop forms are to the general public. You can still be very intelligent, deep and meaningful within pop. And that’s what I try to do, basically. There’s some stuff that I like that is not accessible, like noisecore, bands like Atari Teenage Riot, stuff that you wouldn’t show to your kids or whatever, because it’s quite obscene. They wouldn’t get it. And I listen to all that because I like it and I’m a musician. But I think music is not only for musicians, it’s for everyone to share, and that’s why I like pop music.

ES: Do you consider yourself more of a songwriter or producer? Or are those categories too blurry to separate now?

Y: They’re the same these days. Everyone’s doing it too, everybody’s producing their own stuff, recording it in their bedrooms or in their garages and then putting it out, just by themselves. And that’s how I work too. I just kind of do it as I go, song by song, I don’t try to put an album together, it’s just one at a time, until I’m happy with it, say I’m finished, then keep moving.

ES: Can you tell us anything about your forthcoming EP?

Y: Yes! I can. There’s four tracks on it and two of them are already out. It’s all along the same lines of this cinematic, ’80s, dance anthem kinda thing that’s going on, really atmospheric. It should be dropping later this year, hopefully not too late. And I can’t wait to put it out. There’s a limited edition vinyl release of it as well, really limited, that we’ve handmade ourselves and done all together, but it’ll also be available digitally, so keep your ears and eyes out for that.

ES: What one song, written by someone else, do you wish you could call your own?

Y: There’s this song by a Californian guy called Blake Mills, it’s called “It’ll All Work Out”. It’s an alt-folk tune, it’s not electronic dance, but I have a – I’m wearing a Gillian Welch shirt now, because I’m a big country and folk fan, and I wish I wrote that song. It’s all about [the idea that] everything’s going to be fine. There’s so much bullshit going on right now, but everything’s gonna be okay. And he talks through all of the stuff in his life that’s troubling him, but he convinces himself that everything’s going to be okay, and I think that’s so special. I wish I had the ability to put that kind of insight into a song.

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On Wild Crush, Archie Bronson Outfit‘s first album since 2010’s Coconut, the band stays true to their retro garage rock roots – well, mostly. In place of the DFA-infused electro elements that popped up on their last album, this album reaches into more familiar territory, incorporating elements of roots rock and folk into the band’s fuzz-drenched sound. By far the most glaring new addition to the band’s sonic palette is a saxophone, which squawks and squeals its way through nearly every song on the record. It’s a daring move for a band whose sound is otherwise defined by a pretty specific era and aesthetic; but when it works, it works well, adding a chaotic, freeform element to their brand of blues-y garage rock.

One of the highlights in this respect is album opener, “Two Doves On A Lake”, a fast, retro-leaning track that sounds like Black Sabbath filtered through the lens of krautrock pioneers, Neu!. Hiding in the fuzz, a mellotron whirs under Arp Cleveland’s insistent beat and Sam Windett’s nervous, strained warble. But it’s not until it all breaks for the album’s first solo – wild splatters of wah noise and avant-jazz sax over that same regimented beat – that Archie Bronson Outfit really start to channel something special.

Most of Wild Crush hangs somewhere between this kind of ’70s rock riffage and more accessible songcraft. A good example is the new single, “We Are Floating”, which grafts a roots-y Neil Young riff to a cowbell-punctuated groove. Another highlight, “Love To Pin You Down”, is a mournful tune with a motorik beat slowed down to a super-saturated crawl. But where Wild Crush really shines is when the band isn’t afraid to sprawl out and let their noisier inclinations do the talking, as on “Cluster Up & Hover”, a swampy, repetitive jam with churning guitars and bleeping synths. Here, the interplay between Windett’s guitars and the aforementioned sax lends itself to some desperate, blissful rock ‘n roll.

Other songs on the album are more streamlined, like the jaunty Britpop psych of “In White Relief” or the tuneful folk-rock of “Glory, Sweat and Flow”, but these act as some melodic relief from the album’s noisier moments, which admittedly don’t always push the envelope as far as they could. With the exception of the confusing closing track, “Country Miles”, where the sax seems to fight against the song, the album is too short and concise for any one thing to overstay its welcome.

All said, Archie Bronson Outfit have settled on a well-defined style on Wild Crush, and it’s one that fans of blues-driven indie rock are sure to enjoy.

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Mooch, St. John’s, at Rancho Relaxo

Mooch, a trio from St. John’s, Newfoundland, played a riotous, sweaty set at Rancho Relaxo’s CMW showcase. The band, comprised of Nifty, Crafty, and Shifty, play the kind of sludgy, loud grunge that would have been right at home in an opening slot for Mudhoney or Dinosaur Jr. Their music ventures into that space between punk and metal, with overdriven, ragged tunes meant to be played at top volume. Occasionally, their songs would twist and turn with a swagger reminiscent of a cruder version of ’60s rock bands like Cream or Led Zeppelin. But it’s the simplicity and un-self-conscious nature of songs like “My Own” that makes Mooch endearing, at least as a live band. It doesn’t hurt that the band are clearly having fun on stage, which goes a long way in a booze-soaked club to getting people to let go and join in the abandon.

No Age, Los Angeles, at the MOD Club

Next up was L.A. art-punk duo No Age, playing at the MOD Club to a surprisingly thin crowd (due in large part to scheduling conflicts, no doubt). Nonetheless, the band hit the stage with little fanfare and gave an honest, sweltering performance drenched in cacophony. It’s actually incredible, the sheer amount of noise and sound that comes from these two guys on stage. While the drummer / singer Dean Allen Spunt seems largely responsible for holding down a minimal, pounding beat (and shouting out the songs’ deceptively-tuneful hooks), it’s really the guitarist, Randy Randall, who takes the credit for their signature clouds of sonic detritus, with layers and layers of seething, frothing guitar noise under any given song’s main riff or progression.

Much less overtly experimental live than on record, their set pulled from across their three Sub Pop records, with a slight emphasis on the lo-fi abstraction of new album, An Object, and the more streamlined, shoegaze-meets-punk sound of their breakthrough album Nouns. Songs from the new record like ‘C’mon Stimmung’ and ‘Lock Box’ were reduced to their rawest elements, with walls of feedback and noise bubbling up only for brief passages. Older tracks like ‘Teen Creeps’ and ‘Brain Burner’ retained their original spirit, intense noise-punk songs relentless in their abandon.

It’s true that some of their more experimental, layered stuff sounds considerably less textured live, just because it’s so loud and hard to parse the different layers. But that’s part of the charm and what makes No Age a punk band at heart, despite their artsier inclinations: there’s a kind of bliss to be found in the sheer volume and density of sound coming from Randall’s side of the stage, literal walls of distortion and abrasive noise loops that are virtually impossible to sort through. And just as the brief blast of one song dissipates, another begins.

Port Juvee, Calgary, at Dakota Tavern

Calgary garage band Port Juvee played a spirited late-night set at the Dakota Tavern, showcasing their brand of catchy, Strokes-esque guitar rock. With dry, angular beats, propulsive basslines and scrappily melodic guitars, Port Juvee make music that strikes a delicate balance between hook-driven rock and raw, composed garage punk. Their short set delivered songs that could either place them on boutique indie rock lists or land them on mainstream radio, or, as seems to be the case with ubiquitous crossover bands like The Killers and Metric, both in due time.

Little Dragon, Gothenburg Sweden, at the Kool Haus

On the other side the kids gathered for the Indies. It was obvious the younger crowd was there for Born Ruffians and The Hidden while everyone over 23, quite frankly most of the room, patiently waited for the Little Dragon set.

Standing in the spotlight in her kimono inspired crisp green dress Yukimi Nagano started off the showcase with some low-key tracks putting the audience into an awe-filled sway. Fairly quickly the band moved into the newer, faster, more aggressive tracks from the newly released Nabuma Rubberband album. “Klapp Klapp” immediately set the crowd in motion. While Nagano was pacing the stage, Fredrik Wallin, Håkan Wirenstrand, Erik Bodin (not your typical electronic music looking crew) dropped the weight of the world on the Kool House.

Little Dragon are a band that make dance music, a-typical to the dance music genre, it’s not the kind of stuff you’d hear in a club, only the kool house parties (no pun intended). They seemed to have already achieved their greatness, the performance is removed, emotionless, almost mechanical, though it could just be Nagano’s personality.

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Quilt, Boston, at The Great Hall

Boston-based band, Quilt, kicked off Friday’s CMW proceedings at The Great Hall. The band plays Byrds-esque, psychedelic folk rock complete with four-part harmonies and duelling guitars. Their set was captivating right from the first note, a flange-y wash of guitars shimmering over a light, propulsive rhythm section.

Unlike the more song-oriented scope of their most recent album, Held in Splendor, Quilt’s live set was expansive, allowing the relatively condensed album tracks to blow out past their structures into noisier, more improvised territory. And the guitar interplay between Anna Fox Rochinski and Shane Butler is where Quilt’s unique musical identity really flourishes; in a live setting, at least, the bright, major-chord progressions and harmonized vocals of Quilt’s songs become more a vehicle for these dynamic, minimalist jams. But this isn’t to say that their songs lack character at all; rather, the band uses their sweet, whimsical excursions into ’60s psychedelia as a jumping off point for these wonderfully loose and dynamic instrumental moments. The band put on a great show and maintained a communal presence and synchronicity (despite their songs’ abrupt shifts in tempo and groove), throughout their hypnotic performance.

Woods, Brooklyn, at The Great Hall

When Brooklyn-based experimental folk band, Woods, took to the stage, it was immediately clear that this is not the same band that recorded such lo-fi, haunted albums as Songs of Shame (2009) and At Echo Lake (2010). As shown on their last couple of records, and new album With Light and With Love in particular, Woods have stepped out of the shadows of their murky, homespun sound and moved into a clearer and cleaner register.

Their set focused largely on the streamlined, Beatles-meets-R.E.M. folk pop of the new album, eschewing the experimentalism of their past for a grander, more robust presentation. Their current lineup, which has singer/guitarist Jeremy Earl joined by a four piece band (drums, organ, lead guitar and bass), felt like a well-oiled machine, running through songs from the band’s increasingly solid catalogue like veterans. From “Cali in a Cup” to new single “Leaves Like Glass” and late-set highlight, “With Light and With Love”, Woods demonstrated that they can pull off jangly, tuneful indie pop as well as anyone.

Operators,  Montreal, at The Silver Dollar Room

The anticipation and energy was electric for Operators, the new synth-punk project from indie fixture, Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Divine Fits). With no recordings available yet (they recently finished a record in Montreal with Arcade Fire producer Howard Bilerman) and virtually no label promotion to speak of, their three-night residency at the super-small Silver Dollar felt like a chance to experience something rare and potentially huge.

Picking up more or less where the electro-rock supergroup Divine Fits left off (drummer, Sam Brown holds down the groove in both), Operators is an invigorating take on aggressive, synthetic pop music. Unlike so much modern electronic music, Operators forego the onstage laptop to create angular, ecstatic dance music with real instruments in real time, with Boeckner and fellow knob-twiddler Devojka hunched over a tangled array of analog synths, samplers and sequencers, both dancing to Brown’s processed beats. As a concert experience, it was the polar opposite of the EDM tent, laptop-and-laser spectacle – a sweaty future-punk show that lived up to Boeckner’s description of Fugazi meets New Order.

The songs are unmistakably Boeckner’s though, nervy and brash and catchy, but they skew towards some of the most vital, immediate, hook-laden music he’s made so far. And after Japandroids came on stage to join Boeckner for a cover of Wolf Parade’s “This Heart’s on Fire”, it was all over as quick as it began. Consider it a taste of good things to come. [Bottom image]

ASTR, New York, at Tattoo

ASTR are a New York based, electronic pop/R&B duo. Earlier in the week BROODS gave ASTR on-stage props and Tattoo proved to be one of the busiest venues for CMW, but these two have got some serious bad bitches fan-base. Zoe, the singer, danced across the stage whipping her ponytail, her petite girlish figure in a crop top. ASTR brings together some soft, lyrical pop sounds underlined by hard hitting electronic beats with an occasional R&B verse, making it really hard not to get hooked on their music. These two are a pair to watch.

ODESZA, Seattle, at Tattoo

Since the day ODESZA released Summer’s Gone, Quip has had a crush on the band. When it comes to seeing bands you have a musical crush on live, it’s hit or miss. The high expectations, the girlish excitement, all of that can come crashing down when the band is not as thrilling live as you imagined them to be.

But this was not the case. The dance floor at Tattoo was packed wall to wall, already hyped up by ASTR. “We’re gonna play some weird shit for you guys” alluded Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight and dove into their clean-cut beats. By the third track you could hear the murmur going through the room, the sweaty, dancing crowd is trying to figure out who these dudes are, while Mills and Knight drum their synchronized drums.

Having played nearly their entire repertoire of music with a two-track encore way over the expected one hour set, the band seems to have won some hearts. This might be the day Toronto will finally start appreciating ODESZA.

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It’s probably no secret by now that Television’s debut album Marquee Moon (1977), that classic of angular, poetic guitar rock, has had a profound – if downplayed – influence on the trajectory of modern guitar music. So it goes without saying that anticipation was high when the seminal NYC post-punk band walked on stage at the Pheonix and Tom Verlaine immediately began to conjure those first, tentative notes, as if reaching for something immaterial.

And when the band (all original members, minus Verlaine’s guitarist counterpoint, Richard Lloyd) finally came together and settled on a groove – “1880 or So”, the opening track from their last record, Television (1992) – any doubts that the band had lost any of their vigor over the years vanished entirely. It was a subtle, nuanced performance, with those signature gnarled guitars skating over a perfectly assured beat – like something early-2000s Sonic Youth might have done, only cleaned up and pared down to its minimalist essence.

The crowd was rapt from the first song, but things quickly escalated when the band then broke into “Prove It”, the first of six songs played from Marquee Moon. Its jittery, ‘50s verses and raucous stop-start refrain sounded as fresh and vital as they must have almost 40 years ago. With this and ‘Elevation’ back to back, it was also clear that, not only is long-time Verlaine collaborator, Jimmy Rip, more than up for the task of filling Lloyd’s shoes as Verlaine’s foil, he’s also a guitarist with a uniquely jagged musical personality of his own. Whenever the two trade the stabbing, jigsaw riffs and expressive, beaming notes that comprise Television’s most distinctive character, it’s hard to ignore that there’s a timeless quality to the band’s chemistry.

As for Verlaine, with the exception of a few words here and there, and an amusing retort to a heckler, he was content to let the music speak; his voice has aged well, sounding jubilant and cracked and, really, not all that different from the way it sounded in the ’70s. And anyway, his vocals in Television have always leaned towards the impressionistic side of things, translating the band’s instrumental passages into vignettes of urban existentialism.

While the rest of the set was equally impressive, with a few curveballs thrown in (including early B-sides like the abstract funk of “Little Johnny Jewel” and a tantalizing new song from an unreleased album recorded in 2007), the highlights of the set were definitely those songs culled from the bands most famous album. Where “See No Evil”-esque surf-y, cyclical riffs and the loping, yearning bounce of “Venus” reminded one of Television’s pop sensibility, the truly transcendent moment of the set came at its close in the form of the majestic, stately epic “Marquee Moon”. The song is a post-punk monolith, with its interlocking shards of guitar and moments of fleeting beauty. It captures the inner city anxiety and romance that the entire record spins around, the fragments and freeform tangents, all of which are anchored to the rise and fall of that wounded, elegant melody.

But the best part of the performance was that it didn’t ever feel overly polished or phoned in, there were moments of imperfection here and there, scraggly, rough edges that the band still hasn’t bothered to smoothen out over all these years. And if they can still pull off a set like this, why mess with perfection?

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Having gone into CMW with the sole purpose of seeing as many bands as possible, we spent a lot of time jumping from venue to venue, looking for that awesome new thing with a fairly clear idea of where to find it. Wednesday night proved to be one of the easiest and steadiest nights of the week. But then again, it’s only Wednesday.

MTT, Netherlands, at The Painted Lady

The early days of Canadian Music Week were off to a good start with MTT, a synth-pop band from the Netherlands, at The Painted Lady.

The band has a distinct ’80s vibe, similar to the moodier side of Depeche Mode, but there’s also a more contemporary side to their music, vaguely reminiscent of Deep Cuts-era The Knife. The performance itself was brooding and energetic, hitting a balance between electronic soundscapes and pop immediacy.

LIINKS, Victoria, BC, at the Gladstone Hotel

LIINKS is a collaboration between Georgia Murray and producer/DJ DWhiz. Murray’s passion for music was quite obvious as she tried to inspire the nearly empty ballroom into a little dance. Murray’s vocals are gentle, overlaid with clean solid beats from DWhiz. Having played a few of their own tracks and a Lana Del Rey cover, LIINKS seem to have a little something for everyone in the room.

From the cover song to some slower, indie vibe tracks to the most recent, “The Break”, each song seems to dabble in a different genre lacking overall band focus. All things considered, however, LIINKS’ most recent collaboration with Datsik on Let It Burn and the very possible future hit “The Break” seem to be an indicator of their new solid direction. We’ll stick around and follow these two through because if they keep going on the new found ways of clean synth pop/trip-hop with a touch of dub they will make waves.

CON VOS, New York, at the Drake Underground

CON VOS is a New York based project of the New Jersey hip-hop duo Fortunate Ones and Irish folk singer Sorcha Richardson. The music they make is a kind of mellow hybrid between pop and hip-hop, with retro-leaning ’80s production courtesy of Genetics.

CON VOS took to the  early evening stage for a small, attentive crowd and kicked off the evening with their laid back, melodic sound. With Richardson musically and physically front and center for most of the songs, it’s fair to say that she (along with onstage producer, Genetics) is the dominant presence in CON VOS. The two MCs, flanking the singer on both sides, stood completely motionless with their balaclava-clad heads down for the majority of the set, each one coming to life only for their individual verses. The effect was striking, especially at first, as Richardson’s voice draws the audience in until the rappers become suddenly animated, interrupting the smooth, beat-driven lull.

While the individual musical elements worked fine, something about the overall performance seemed a little disjointed, which in all fairness could have been due in part to the low energy crowd. It could also be that CON VOS just haven’t quite found that magic recipe for their musical fusion yet.

Yeo, Melbourne, at the Gladstone Hotel

After sidestepping some technical difficulties with good humor, multi-instrumentalist and producer Yeo took to the stage, accompanied by a drummer on an acoustic/electronic hybrid kit.

All the way from Melbourne, Australia, Yeo makes music that is difficult to classify, using a mixture of electronic instruments, sequenced sounds and live accompaniment to create a shifting pop tapestry. From deep synth tones to funky basslines and soaring keytar solos, Yeo’s live set infused a palpable, human energy into his brand of emotive electronic pop. Songs like his recent single “Kobe” came off surprisingly well on stage, but given Yeo’s obvious instrumental chops, it’d be nice to see his detailed production skills deconstructed even more in future live sets, perhaps with a full band.

BROODS, New Zealand, at the Drake Underground

Down the street at the Drake, Auckland’s BROODS took the stage for their highly anticipated set. This brother-sister duo is in perfect sync in a perfect band relationship. While their music might seem somewhat sad on record, when they play live the darkness of their lyrics comes alive in an incredibly cheerful way, mostly due to Georgia’s bright and cheerful personality.

The overwhelming energy bursting from the stage evolved the originally dark “Coattails” into an anthem song, the kind of track you make big decisions to, while marching into…well, wherever it is these new decisions take you. The room, filled from corner to corner, danced, cheered, clapped, and whistled, there was no shortage of fluttery to go around. If anything is an indication of talent, it’s live show success. These two are undoubtedly a band to watch.

Slaughter Beach, Denmark, at The Dakota Tavern

Slaughter Beach are a band from Denmark that play hazy, melodic guitar rock with vaguely psychedelic undertones. Mining sounds as diverse as ’60s pop and ’90s indie experimentalism, their music is a dreamy, nostalgic collage, borrowing from the past, but rooted firmly in the present.

Leisurely taking the stage, the band opened with their debut single, “Made-Up True Love”, a brilliantly lo-fi song built on a bed of melodic, interlocking guitars and a great, sampled beat that sounds like it’s been excavated from a dusty box in your attic. Distant organs and old keyboard sounds abound, creating a warm sonic foundation that the band’s pained, sweetly androgynous vocals and sunny melodies push off from.

Throughout their set, I was reminded of bands like Deerhunter, Tame Impala and The Bends-era Radiohead, guitar bands that manage to somehow convey something new and vital the old-fashioned way, through emotional songcraft and inventive arrangements, while relying mostly on that tired old six-stringed tool so often pronounced dead on the scene. This is music that feels like it was borne from genuine chemistry, from the unique dynamic that comes from five different people actually playing together in a room.

The band seemed perfectly at ease and nonchalant about the whole thing, running through their set at their own relaxed pace. It was a breath of fresh air in an evening dominated by colder, more synthetic sounds, electronic solo fliers and enough backing tracks to make you wonder exactly what it means to play live music in 2014. Here’s to hoping that they stick around.

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Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks draws fresh blood: Dave Portner talks to Quip about his new album, early rock ‘n’ roll, and making things abstract.

Anyone familiar with the sonic shape-shifting of Animal Collective is well aware that this is a band that can’t sit still. Now, that restless ethos has lead principal songwriter and sort-of frontman Dave Portner (aka Avery Tare) to form a new band. Featuring Angel Deradoorian (ex-Dirty Projectors) on keys and Jeremy Hyman (ex-Ponytail) on drums, Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks emerge from the hallucinatory fog of a Halloween party gone awry to make music that “comes from a place that’s not human.”

The band’s infectious new record, Enter the Slasher House, has all of the hallmarks of Portner’s mercurial sound: fractured pop melodies driven by kinetic rhythms, goopy synths, and ghostly vocal samples dripping with anxious glee. But despite the sinister overtones, there’s a sense of playfulness on Enter the Slasher House that bends the album’s sound and sensibility through the warped light of a funhouse mirror.

Take first single “Little Fang,” whose video (directed by Portner’s sister, Abby, and featuring a puppet haunted by ghouls) perfectly captures the album’s collision of the campy and the surreal. The song itself is one of Portner’s most immediate and strangely-touching songs to date, a breezy pop gem celebrating quirkiness and resilience in the face of harsh realities. Its casual, relaxed feel is one rarely found in Animal Collective’s more overtly experimental tendencies.

Elsewhere, the music on Enter the Slasher House is more exploratory and harder to pin down, marrying a raw, unhinged garage band aesthetic to the freeform spaciousness of jazz, as on album highlight “An Outlaw.” It’s a surprisingly accessible sound that feels streamlined and spontaneous, open to improvisation and flux. Right from the first track “A Sender,” with its pulsing beat, modular synths and creaky guitar lines, the overarching feeling of Enter the Slasher House is of confidence, chemistry, and a distinctly psychedelic swagger.

Quip spoke with Portner while the band was preparing to kick off a van tour  in Denver, and he sounded rejuvenated and excited to be unleashing Enter the Slasher House on a live audience.

The album was recorded live, a decision Portner says had to do with a new interest in early rock ‘n‘ roll, like Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly or Chuck Berry, and a fascination with early recording techniques. “A lot of that was captured in a really primitive way. When you think of the band setting up in this really simple room, putting up a mic for the drums, and it being about capturing it in the take, and jazz being about that too, just getting the energy down.  Because there’s something that happens in those early takes… something you can’t recreate sometimes.”

“[In] a lot of modern music, that space is gone. So much is electronic and direct now, and based on plug-ins and computers, that there’s a sense that we’ve lost the art of capturing the way a room sounds.”

For Portner, it’s all about balancing this live spontaneity with the desire to experiment with sound. “I love the production side of music, things like The Beatles, and how old psychedelic music was produced and recorded.” The end result is an album that sounds like the work of a single unit, its three parts – guitar, synths, and drums – separate strands that weave and intermingle as the songs unfold. And on the frenetic future-punk of “Blind Babe” or the strobed-out groove of “Strange Colores” the live sound is so visceral it feels like the band is about to burst right out of the speakers.

Slasher Flicks began in less lively circumstances when Portner found himself back in L.A. after a series of throat infections forced him to cancel a long string of shows for last year’s Centipede Hz tour. Reflecting on his state of mind while writing these songs, Portner describes  being disappointed in himself in not being able to fulfill a sense of duty. “Having all these touring plans and just being physically not capable of it made me start to think a lot about how the mind and the body really work together and how much of it was stress on my part, how much of it was just pure illness, viral or whatever.” And this period bubbles up on “Catchy (Was Contagious),” an Afro-rhythmic jam with a sun-drenched hook and queasy, processed vocals.

But rather than dwell on the darkness, Enter the Slasher House is remarkably upbeat and brightly-hued. When asked if his recent move to L.A. influenced the album, Portner went on to describe his experience of the city as being defined by such contrasts. “It’s hard to deny the fact that it’s sunny and there’s this very specific kind of weather and environment in L.A. all the time. L.A. is so tied into Hollywood, which to me translates into searching out how the horror industry ties into the environment. Because I’m so into horror films, the idea that this genre came from this place is really appealing to me. And that’s sort of expressed in the band, The Misfits, who have this song, “Horror Babylon,” and all these songs that reference horror movies. So that darkness seeps its way in.”

In a way, this fascination with the dark underbelly of idyllic escape has always been a part of Portner’s style. In the same breath as the above, he mentions Love’s Forever Changes – that L.A. masterpiece of late-‘60s innocence lost – as a personal favorite and formative influence since recording Animal Collective’s debut album, Spirit They’ve Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished.

Portner’s love of horror is about something less tangible than gore, a darkness harder to define: “[Horror] is just an extreme genre and to me it becomes more like watching visual art. It’s almost about making it abstract, getting into the warmth of the colors and the texture of film and the lo-fi quality of a lot of those movies. And in the supernatural sense, it’s something other.”

For Avey Tare, music has always been about “taking the listener somewhere else.” Like David Lynch’s Inland Empire, a harrowing portrait of Hollywood that Portner says had a “profound effect” on him (despite its impossible-to-follow narrative), Portner’s work uses a kind of “emotional collage” to make the strange familiar.

And Enter the Slasher House is no exception, with its promise to take you “on a whole new ride” with its surreal artwork, meant to feel “like you were just walking around in the woods and came upon this weird cultish engraving.” It’s a fitting emblem for an album where weird is welcome and escape is always out of reach.

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Last Thursday at the Horseshoe Tavern, the band celebrated the release of Wonderkind with a set that sat nicely in the middle of those two extremes. The live arrangements showcased the lush sheen of the new album while also breathing some extra looseness and groove into songs that, on record, can sometimes feel overly buttoned-up or restrained.

The band took to the stage with singer/guitarist Kristen Cudmore all the way over on stage right and the rest of the band unfolding in a nice, democratic semi-circle. Rounded out with trumpet, drums, bass, backup vocals and keyboards, the six-piece band opened with “Oh Tangible World”, a swirling pop-rock number and one of the more immediate tracks off Wonderkind. Appearing roughly halfway into Wonderkind, the song’s syncopated verses and group-sung hook took on a special lightness as a set opener, announcing the band’s unique brand of indie pop. Paired with “5 W’s”, a buoyant dream pop number introduced by Cudmore as a “love song,” the first two songs underscored just how effortlessly catchy the band’s music can be.

They also acted as a primer to Wonderkind’s more complex material, such as “Old Familiar”, arguably the centrepiece of the album and a pretty challenging piece for such an early slot in the set. It was a subtle, dynamic performance that managed to capture the grandiose arrangement on the record, including a downcast trumpet part. The song showed the depth of what Language Arts can do as a live band and got one of the evening’s most enthusiastic crowd responses, thanks largely to its supercharged climax and drummer Neil MacIntosh’s mammoth chops.

Many of the songs were slightly darker than their recorded versions. “Hot Air Balloon”, for instance, was imbued with all kinds of mood and suspense, qualities not so apparent on the album version. Likewise, songs like “Illusion” and the first single, “Wonderkind”, were pared down to emphasise atmosphere and a smoky, New Orleans vibe.

Elsewhere, the live renditions brought out the best qualities of the record. When the band broke into the fuzzed-out tribalism of “What If it Were to Be Reworked” (for example) it was a welcome reprieve from the band’s more introspective compositions. The set closer, “More Than Amazing”, the first track on Wonderkind and easily the highlight of Thursday’s set, was just as wistful and nostalgic as it is on the record, and executed perfectly.

Overall, Language Arts have become an accomplished, confident live band more than capable of handling the many stylistic shifts found on their new album. It’s obvious watching them that they enjoy playing the album’s songs, and this unabashed excitement is definitely part of their sound as a band. Already perfectly at ease with the material, it might, however, be exciting to see what the band is capable of when they are just a little bit less comfortable, a little bit less composed.

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On some songs, like album opener “Erreur Humaine,” the band mines a more downcast, heavy indie rock sound to explore contemplative themes like ageing and stasis. Sung over a shimmering major-chord progression, lines like “Just 22 and I feel like I’m through” are jarring and, maybe, that’s the point. The song itself is a mid-tempo, Pixies-esque burner with an explosive refrain (“One should never go back and fuck with the past”), framing such sentiments with a sense of real drama.

Lyrically, this album feels less like a celebration of youth than an elegy for its ending, despite the album’s title. The album seems to occupy that weird in-between space after you realise that the past is gone, but before you decide it’s not worth trying to get back. It might seem a strange fixation for a band so young and fired up, and the angst can sometimes feel a little overdone. It can also be endearing – after all, Youth Culture Forever isn’t really about the lyrics so much as it’s about the raw, unfiltered sentiment behind the words, the sheer energy of the music.

And, thankfully, it’s not all prosaic: after the opener, the record takes on a more urgent feel, with two tracks in a row of catchy, propulsive punk rock. But even with all the overdriven momentum and youthful abandon of these songs, that same ambivalence pops up again: “Sometimes we are forced to accept defeat.” Other songs tackle suicide (“Alone”), and the struggle to leave a sour relationship in the dust where it belongs (“Someone New”). Halfway through the former, the band sinks into a slow, metallic groove with crunchy guitars and funereal strings, providing a moody detour from the album’s main drag.

The undisputed highlight of the album is its last track, “War Cry”, an expansive, ultra-heavy piece (think proto-grunge legends, Melvins, or even the desert dirges of Kyuss) that descends into throat-shredding madness before settling down into a dreamy, extended jam reminiscent of The Cure or DIIV. The song shows a whole other side of what PAWS can do as a band, ending the album on a blistering high.

So, maybe, Youth Culture Forever is a stepping stone towards a new era for PAWS, one free of the past. Either way, Youth Culture Forever might not reinvent the wheel, but it’s a tight set of exhilarating songs that shows a band poised on the edge of something big.

Release date: May 6, 2014

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