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And so they keep coming. Just over a year after New
York became about the coolest place to park your cultural
car and have a hot dog in England we still seem to be
hanging out in the same parking lot waiting for inspiration.
And it keeps coming in drabs, and we keep lapping it
up. The latest young chancers go by the name of Longwave,
peddle blissful intelligent noise to soothe whatever
pain you’re feeling and will most probably exceed your
expectations by proving that not everyone from NY lives
rock n roll with over-privileged funding from parents
and a half-decent collection of New Wave LPs to pillage
(no matter how damn absorbing that actually turns out
to be).
And what better place to start their operation than
over in the grateful British Isles, on tour under the
wing of New York’s finest (n.b. still correct as of
the beginning of April), The Strokes. We join them a
few days prior to beginning this excursion round some
of the UK’s larger theatres in a North London rehearsal
studio, fine tuning their initial assault. As we enter
the room however it’s more like intensive care, all
four crouched over an crashed amp that frontman Steve
teased just a little too far for feedback. A couple
of hefty knocks, some fiddling with a penknife and things
are pretty much restored to at least a marginal working
order, giving us the chance to witness them run through
their sprawling set of sounds glued together and bound
with effortless melody. Songs such as the double a-side
‘Exit’ / ‘Ambien’, released over here in the UK earlier
this month, hint at a basis of years mulling over ‘OK
Computer’ – the sure stuttering beats bustling for headway
with a spaced out backdrop – and ‘The Joshua Tree’ and
‘Zooropa’ – pushing out from the luscious quagmire with
confident melodies. But then there’s the reckless drive
of last generation NY punks Sonic Youth before they
went all a bit too contemplative in further songs, presumably
destined for their next album, the follow up to 2000’s
debut ‘Endsongs’. And then they have the secure spring
in their step of Guided By Voices, given gleam by a
wonderfully naïve desire to just put their heads down
and rock.
Previous to that though we sat down as they chewed on
pizza, despite their confusion over the inclusion of
sweetcorn as a topping (hell, they come from New York
City, surely Pizza Central…), and flicked trough their
first smatterings of UK press coverage. They get mildly
irked over NME’s unsure shoe-gazing label, but concur
the bands this suggests is probably a good thing. And
then they take in the, erm, phenomenon of our shallow
celebrity gossip tat mags, one of which perhaps bizarrely
features them. It should also probably be noted that
drummer Michael only realises through his spaced glaze
that they’re being interviewed about 2 minutes from
the end… despite kicking your correspondent’s Dictaphone
to the floor accidentally halfway through.
Crud: So, have you got that whole New York thing
going on then?
Shannon: Well, we’re definitely from New York. Y’know,
I think you guys are going to have real difficulties
finding many similarities between all the New York bands
Steve: It’s important, in that people are looking to
New York at the moment for a lot of bands. And there
are a lot of great bands in New York at the moment.
We obviously believe we are one of those bands. And
it’s a great starting point that people are paying attention
anyway. And it’s great in that way, really good. But
it’s also true that there’s a harder punk scene and
we’re not really a part of that. And there’s a lot of
other great bands in New York that aren’t part of that.
Crud: But are you a product of your environment,
as other NY bands so clearly have been – Television,
The Ramones, The Strokes?
Steve: I think we are, but it’s maybe affected us in
different ways. A lot of the noise that we like that’s
in our music, I know I wasn’t into that before I moved
to New York. And it’s so busy, you can’t help but be
affected by it. And as an attitude, yeah, it’s really
influential on us as people.
Crud: Longwave as a name evokes that retro ambience
(long wave frequencies, grainy sounds, huddled round
the wireless) that’s kind of linking a lot of current
bands together?
Steve: A lot of the bands… I guess we do like a lot
of the same stuff. For us that might be considered shoe-gazing
and stuff. But along with that we do have the strong
songs and the melodies and you can sing them ~ Michael
kicks Dictaphone off chair ~ Where were we, lost my
thread, erm, what? Yeah, well you do turn the radio
on and a lot of stuff seems way too polished and way
too cold, y’know, that rap-metal SUPER-production that
happens.
Crud: From the single we hear big sounds. A lot of Radiohead,
a bit of U2, My Bloody Valentine, hints of depth? Fair?
Steve: I personally didn’t discover My Bloody Valentine
until much later on, but U2, yeah.
Crud: There seems to be a lot of British influence
in there though, as with West Coast titans BRMC?
Steve: Yeah, I don’t know. I think the British bands
we like are just the bands we like in general. The bands
we like all have in common this kind of wall of sound
sonic depth, but also really sensible pop songs, kinda
melodic. Those are the two things for us I guess.
Crud: Your first record was out in 2000, The ‘Exit’/‘Ambien’
single is the first we’ve heard. Much changed in the
interim?
Steve: Basically what happened is we’ve got better since
that record. That record was the first time I’d ever
sung into a microphone. We’ve played many shows since
then, we’re more confident, as songwriters too. I don’t
know, we talk amongst ourselves about how we’re not
happy with that first record. We like some of the songs
on it, they’re still relevant to us, I just think the
recording of it’s not too hot. The stuff that we have
just done and will be doing for this next record is
maybe a little dirtier. I was talking to someone earlier
about how I like everything to be really distorted,
but I like to be able to hear every element.
Shannon: As a band when we did that we probably weren’t
entirely comfortable with each other. There was a lot
of learning how to play together, y’know, we’re all
four different people and we had played together before,
but once you try and turn into a band what the sound
is is a big part of that. I think maybe we just never
really solidified what that was.
Crud: Where are you with the record now then?
Steve: I think we’re pretty close to just getting in
there and recording right now, there’s a lot of songs
that we got ready. ‘Exit’ & ‘Ambien’ got a lot of it
on there, stuff like that. And we’ve been working with
Dave Fridmann. I mean, his drum sounds are awesome and
his vocal sounds as well, and that’s what we really
want.
Crud: Could you just sum up what exactly you’re about?
Steve: I do all the lyrics and they’re kind of all self-absorbed,
selfish writing! Just about myself. Stuff I’m going
through or how it impresses on me what we’re all going
through and that kinda informs the lyrics. And living
in New York too. Chaos really, is what we’re about.
That’s kind of it. They’re not love songs or anything
like that necessarily, not political songs, they’re
personal songs.
Tour dates:
19th April New York, NY Brownies support: the
poster children, skycam doors at 8:30, 21+, $10
20th April Boston, MA The Middle East Upstairs
supporting nada surf and dragstrip courage, 18+, $8,
doors at 9pm, longwave at 10pm
the single "Exit" b/w "Ambien" is out now on Hummer
Records
www.longwavetheband.com
James Berry for Crud Magazine© 2002
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| 04/02 1 Giant Leap - My Culture
04/02 Elfpower Interview - Andrew Rieger - Creatures
04/02 Frou Frou Interview - Guy Sigsworth/Imogen Heap
04/02 Gomez Interview - Ian Ball
04/02 Idlewild - Live - London Astoria
04/02 K's Choice Interview
04/02 Leaves - Live - Camden Dingwall
04/02 Longwave Interview - Exit
04/02 Lucy Mongrel Interview
04/02 Oasis - The Hindu Times
04/02 Phantom Planet - Interview
04/02 Unwritten Law - Interview
04/02 VUE - Coordinates Interview
05/02 BRMC - LIve - Kentish Town, London
05/02 Breeders - Title K
05/02 FC Kahuna - Machine Says Yes
05/02 Moco - Live - London Monarch
05/02 Need New Body - Interview
05/02 The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Live - Soundhause, Northampton
05/02 The Bellrays - Meet The Bellrays
06/02 Fleadh Festival - Finsbury Park
06/02 Frou Frou Coordinates Interview
06/02 Incubus - Interview - Mark Einziger
06/02 North Mississippi Allstars - Interview
06/02 Papa Roach - She Loves Me Not
06/02 Proud Mary - Live - Northampton, Soundhaus
06/02 Pulp - Live - Sherwood Pines, Edwinstowe
06/02 Reindeer section - You Are My Joy
06/02 Silverchair - Diorama
|  |
06/02
Something Corporate - Leaving Through The
Window
06/02
Soinc Youth - Interview
06/02
The Burn - The Smiling Face
06/02
The Coral - Live - Roadmender, Northampton
06/02
The LIbertines - Live - The Social, Nottingham
06/02
The Vines, Sheffield Leadmill
06/02
Trik Turner - Interview
06/02
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Live, Soundhaus, Northampton
07/02
12 Stones Interview
07/02
Arolo -Interview
07/02
Buy To Let Doncaster - Anti Social Behaviour
07/02
Cassius - Interview
07/02
Farrah - Interview
07/02
Glassjaw - Interview
07/02
Neil Michael Haggerty - Interview
07/02
Hoobastank - Running Away
07/02
Leaves - Interview
07/02
LL Cool Jay Interview
07/02
Oasis - Live - Finsbury Park, London
07/02
Polyphonic Spree - Live - Camden Monarch
07/02
Queens of the Stone Age - Songs For The
Deaf
07/02
Super Furry Animals - Interview
07/02
The Beatings - Live - Metro Club London
07/02
The Bellrays + The D4 - Virgin Megastore,
Oxford Street London
January 2001
July
- August 2001
September
- October 2001
November
- December 2001
January
- March 2002
April
- July 2002
August
- December 2002
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