Posts Tagged ‘Elizabeth Skadden’

WALL – ” Cuban Cigars “

Posted: February 4, 2016 in MUSIC
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Cuban Cigars is the first single from WALL’s self titled 7″ EP out on Wharf Cat Records

They’ve often been compared to 80s alt godheads and REM-influencers Pylon – one comparison they seem to actively enjoy. Naturally, The Bush Tetras and ESG always crack a mention. But while the no wave tag is there in Gomez’ blank-eyed marching rhythms, Skadden’s loping bass, and the squeal-of-brakes whine of Vince’s guitar, there’s also a melodic force to their songs that only comes through with repeated listens.

Take, for instance, ‘Milk’ – from their forthcoming self-titled EP – where York’s playful surrealism takes things in a direction that most of the no wave’s deadening non-sequiturs wouldn’t dare. “The sky opened up / milk poured out / They say that is the way,” she deadpans, as the song decelerates into its gawping chorus with the tuneful efficiency of Jefferson Airplane transforming like Optimus Prime into Jefferson Smart Bomb.

Personnel
Vanessa Gomez
Vince McClelland
Elizabeth Skadden
Samantha York

‘Cuban Cigars’ is their breakout-hit so far – a strident cock-of-the-walk post-punker that alternates York’s sly whimsy: “Fresh baked bread keeps the pigs well fed”, with Skadden squawking “suited up, playing rough, walking in and talking tough” and ends abruptly with everyone coughing like they’ve all choked a fistful of Cuban Leaf down the wrong way.

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If there are two poles which drive WALL’s sound, then it’s the bass-vs-guitars face-off of Skadden-McClelland, whose musical histories are pretty opposite.

Skadden’s mom was a hippy who brought the avant-garde likes of Laurie Anderson and Devo into the home from a young age, to the extent that her taste has consolidated around the scratchy, challenging, atonal end of the spectrum. “Honestly, something is wrong with my ear. I can’t listen to something like The Cars or The Clash, and think it sounds good, I just can’t do it.” Skadden was previously of Finally Punk, the Austin, Texas punk luminaries who styled themselves as ‘No Rules’, swapping instruments in-between their one-minute songs. “I enjoyed Finally Punk so much that I didn’t believe I could ever find something that even came close,” she says.

Working with Vince has been different. “I’ve played with other guys before Vince, but honestly never liked it. I find men are quite limiting in a band context. Women, in my experience, are more open to sharing. Vince has a willingness to experiment that’s amazing. I think of him as my own personal Eric Erlandson: stoic, patient, talented. Et cetera.”

On the other side of the spectrum, Vince’s previous act was the cute, pin-neat 60s pop of The Keepsies. “I became obsessed with this book, Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles,” he says. “I would write songs based on different chapters of the book.” The Keepsies is still a recording project, he adds, co-owned with Austin Brown of Parquet Courts. Vince was an early drummer in semi-legendary Austin indie act Ringo Deathstarr too. “Elizabeth works like a focusing element,” he explains. “I noodle over all of our songs, and she picks what she likes. I have a terrible memory, so she’s good at stopping me and saying, “Wait, play that again.”

WALL’s rhythmic tumble-dryer is all the more remarkable given that Gomez was an utter drumming novice when she arrived. “I’ve just always connected the most to the drums when listening to music,” Gomez explains. “I always mentally imagined myself doing it. Riot grrrrl made me believe I could. So… I’m so glad that I finally pursued it like fucking 15 years later.”

Years ago, a friend gave her their drum kit for free. “And then more recently a few friends gave me a few lessons, but being in a band is what really helped me learn.” She grins. “I’m lucky to have bandmates who are so patient…”

For her part, York grew up listening to “a mix of terrible indie bands from the mid-2000’s mixed with weird Zolo and a whole slew of 80’s jams that I discovered via Elizabeth. We’ve known each other for nearly 20 years and lived together as youngsters.” Two of the videos she most remembers watching on repeat together were ‘Bostich’ by Yello and Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’ – about as far at either end of the palette as you could get. “I think something that has helped our friendship together for so many years is that nothing in our lives has ever been normal…”

WALL – ” Last Date “

Posted: February 2, 2016 in MUSIC
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New York band WALL serve up ‘Cuban Cigars’ | DIY

One of New York’s most hyped new bands return with a Devo sting in their tail today.

Vince McClelland’s guitar is orchestral and piercing throughout, while Sam York, singer with any real songs behind her this decade, spits and instructs her way through 100 seconds of intensity.

While there are a bunch of bands from elsewhere in the States making similar music right now – Coneheads from North West Indiana, perhaps – but none of them are really courting the mainstream the way Wall are. Here are a band, you feel, who actually want to be big, want to tour, want to get into a proper studio and see how it fucks with their shit. Bring on that date, I say. See Wearewall.com for more on Wall. ‘Last Date’ is the final track on the fourpiece’s debut EP which is out on January 15th on Wharf Cat Records. It was produced by Austin Brown from Parquet Courts.
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Wall are :
Vanessa Gomez
Vince McClelland
Elizabeth Skadden
Samantha York

WALL – ” Wall ” EP

Posted: January 29, 2016 in MUSIC
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This is a collection of singles from WALL’s debut EP out on 15th january 2015

With each sonic movement on the introductory self-titled EP from New Yorkʼs WALL there’s a commitment to defend a punctuated duality between curiosity and triumph. After all, whatʼs a band worth but its message? A certain self-awareness of the very question is at the heart of the WALL apparatus and listening along as they discover themselves throughout this EP is invigorating and scary. Tone and rhythm whirl together, like an emergency exit door choreographed to swing flawlessly in time to its damned and chaotic Pavlovian alarm bell. From the first rigid and cautious seconds of their EP, WALL unleashes an uncanny self-awareness that methodically slips pages ripped from demented No Wave legacies through a shredder of their own design. Their spirit is exceptional and candid; generous heaps of raw energy and inspired moments of tension demand repeat rotations on your turntable. With this debutante artifact, WALL have invited the world to witness the birth of a toxic-new tempestuous bloodwave of post-punk, exactly the transfusion the scene needs to stay alive. Edition of 300 Records.


First drummer Vanessa Gomez took to the stage, small and steely-eyed, pointing her drumsticks skywards, like one of those Ancient Egyptian dog-man creatures stood guard over the Temple Of No Wave. Then Elizabeth Skadden joined her, in sensible knitwear, her bass slung preposterously low like Paul Simonon’s. The soon pair locked into a groove that could not have been more urgent had it been sent by cycle courier with red tape up the edges.

Guitarist Vince McClelland – a tall pretty boy with a Jerry Lee corkscrew of mousy blonde hair – was up next, striding out to scratch at the neck and the bridge of his guitar, whipping it like a disobedient donkey until it gave him the coarse atonalities he was looking for.
Finally, Sam York – long streak of piss, all 6ft limbs – jittered onstage, opened her long thin lungs, and unleashed her stream of consciousness that sounded like Dadaist pamphlets assembled from shredded brochures for Upper West Side therapists.
WALL were the sound in my head. The sound of a fantasy New York of cracked pavements and broken lives, the rattle of subway cars, the whine of elderly people being assaulted, the fast staccato chop-shop rhythms of a tumbledown global capital. They were sharp and uncompromisingly so. Like early B-52s if they’d grown up on Wu Tang, this was swagger music, designed to make the weak feel stronger and the strong feel indomitable.

That sense of riding on the rim of a moment, circling on the edge of chaos, is the result of four very different minds coming together – a musical friendship that has taken on a chemistry above what its participants had anticipated.

In fact, when Elizabeth Skadden moved to New York after a three-year stint on the arts scene in Berlin, she wasn’t necessarily looking for a new band. “But being in a band is like falling in love. It always happens when you least expect…” WALL started when she hooked up with her childhood friend Sam York, who became the singer, drummer Vanessa Gomez who had only started playing a couple of months earlier, and guitarist Vince McClelland, of 60s moptop homagers The Keepsies.