Interview with Ratatat's Mike Stroud

Mike Stroud: Where’s your neck? Hiding hickies under there?

Litter Paragon: Uh…I just thought I’d wear my cat scarf to your show. Which was great by the way.
MS: Thanks. I hope I don’t smell too bad. I’m really sweaty.

LP: Haha, everyone is, I think. How do you like it here? Have you or Evan (Mast) ever been to Oberlin before?
MS: This is our first time. It just seems really small. I don’t know. I was just in the bus and then in this building here, and then that ‘Sco place. It seems good. Do you like it?

LP: Yeah, I love it. You and Evan met at college, right?
MS: Yes, at Skidmore, but we hardly knew each other really. And we didn’t really play together until 2001 or something like that. I was a classical music major, and then I realized the whole college thing is kind of bullshit and I left after two years. Like, it’s so motherfuckin’ expensive, you know? And as a musician, you just have to do it. A lot of music business you can’t learn in school.

LP: How did you first cultivate your highly recognizable sound?
MS: What do you mean?

LP: Usually, with both your remixes and your original work, you can immediately recognize it as Ratatat.
MS: We just make music. The new record was mostly recorded in two days. There was no time to plan ahead. Evan had some beats or whatever, and then we just slammed through the rest of it.

LP: How much of the melodic content is charted out, or planned before hand?
MS: None of it. It’s mostly improv.

LP: Where do you find more inspiration, in hip hop or in electronic music?
MS: I kind of hate electronic music. And I hate modern hip hop too, actually. The kind of music that influences me most in making the melodies and everything is classical music. All the remix shit, all that stuff – that’s Evan’s thing, not mine. If I listen to hip hop, it’s stuff like Wu Tang.

LP: Funny you should mention Wu Tang. GZA was here a little over a week ago.
MS: You get a lot of good music here, don’t you?

LP: Yeah; it’s amazing. You’re touring with some great artists yourself – how is tour going?
MS: It’s so good. The guy from Panther and I have become really tight over the past couple weeks. It’s crazy. My favorite band to tour with, ever, probably.

LP: A lot of people expect to see two traditional DJs, bent over laptops when they see you live, which is not at all what you do. How do you decide which parts to play live, which parts to sample…?
MS: We were never going to be just some laptop band. I don’t know. We just play what we think will bring more energy to the show.

LP: You said you don’t like electronic music…but the new Animal Collective remix of your song “Mirando” is being called a 10-minute techno masterpiece. How do you feel about that?
MS: Honestly I couldn’t care less.

LP: Really? It’s a milestone for Animal Collective to be remixing. Do you like Animal Collective?
MS: Uh…I don’t know. I just don’t really care.

LP: Do you even like the remix albums that you guys have put out?
MS: I guess they’re ok. But that is Evan’s thing. I don’t have much of a say in it.

LP: You’re a big part of the Brooklyn music scene. How do you like it there?
MS: I love it. We’ve been focusing on our own shit lately, but it’s a good place to be for music and stuff. Where do you live?

LP: Colorado. But I’ll probably end up in Brooklyn like most other Oberlin graduates.
MS: Oh yeah? Where in Brooklyn?

LP: I’m not sure –
MS: Oh, ok, I get it, I get it. You don’t want to tell me where you live.

LP: No, I just don’t kn-
MS: Well, I’ll give you my exact address – I’ll tell you exactly where I live. I live at ________ in Williamsburg. You can come party with us. Why so mysterious? Just tell me where you live! Where do you live?!

LP: I don’t know yet!
MS: Ok. I’ll give up. Any more questions?

LP: Yeah! Your music has been featured on TV, in movies, in Louis Vuitton fashion shows, and even in hospitals where new mothers are giving birth, according to Pitchfork. How does this kind of ubiquity feel?
MS: I mean, I guess we just don’t really pay that much attention. It’s kind of weird, I guess.

LP: Well, it was a fantastic show. Congratulations on the new album and the international tour. Where are you most excited to go?
MS: We really like Switzerland, Europe in general I guess.

LP: Very cool. Well, it was nice meeting you. Have a good tour.
MS: You too.

Crystal Castles and HEALTH: The Show to End All Shows

Like an exponentially growing percentage of the Oberlin campus, you may be in love with Crystal Casltes (or at least Alice Glass). This could be for various reasons, including but not limited to: 1) Alice Glass is a hottie, 2) she looks like Karen O back when Karen O was a little hotter than she is now, 3) they make mind-blowing experimental thrash-electro music, or 5) Ethan (born Claudio) Kath used to be in a bad hardcore band in which his name was Ethan Deth. Ok, so it probably has nothing to do with the last reason, and that’s a good thing. Needless to say, after someone hears the CC remix of “Crimewave” by fellow touring band HEALTH, which reached #9 on the UK indie singles chart, there’s no going back. You are a lover, or I don’t know who you are.

By touring with the band that put you on the map, both HEALTH and CC had amazing foresight. We at Oberlin were witness to the first portion of a widely talked-about tour, which, I was not at all shocked to find out, lived up to all my wildest expectations.

Oberlin electronic duo Lionface (Ex-FX Unicorn) consisting of Alex Christie and Michael Rosen were on first, combining cute blips and beeps with house beats and pulsating bass. Despite less-than-impressive levels of audience dance-age until right before HEALTH performed, Lionface had a vigorous set. I know I am not alone in my sentiment when saying that I am now reassured that the name change has not at all affected the electro-pop appeal of FX Lionfaceicorn.

Los Angeles noise rock band HEALTH stormed the stage with what looked like a couple tons of equipment. This includes your “standard” rock n’ roll instruments along with synths, a super cool electronically distorted drum-head-thing (ask any TIMARA major for an intelligent and accurate description), and a Zoothorn, which is essentially a permutation of guitar and microphone, creating severe, distorted sonic mayhem.

John Famiglietti, multiple instrumentalist and occasional shrieker, kicked off the set with what looked like convulsions paired with the apocalyptic beating of the aforementioned super cool electronic drum thing. Listening to their self-titled 2007 Lovepump United release, it would seem illogical for HEALTH to pull off a good live show due to the seemingly unsystematic pairings of silence and raging waves of noise, but they proved me wrong. The almost-telepathic rhythmic communication between the band members was extraordinary, tightly winding their parts together with minimal metrical inaccuracy.

HEALTH has their moments of yelling and screeching, but their tendencies toward mellow chanting and smooth vocal soundscapes set them apart from other experimental, noise rock groups. On their recordings, the vocal parts are highlighted and provide a shimmering drone amongst the otherwise rhythmically centered clamor. A venue like the ‘Sco has a naturally hard time providing an acoustically viable landscape for this kind of sound, so the disappointing lack of vocal luster was the only tangible complaint I left with.

Some, however, thought that the show was too loud. One audience member came up to Farniglietti after their set in order to tell him: “Hey. Great show, but I was wondering if you could just play quieter next time.” “You mean, when you’re not there?” “Yeah.” Farniglietti gave a weak chuckle as if to express his unwillingness to take bullshit from not-yet-deaf fans while we walked into the Decafé to discuss his experiences at Oberlin as well as HEALTH’s history and evolution as a band.

The Oberlin Tritone: Hi John. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me today. So, what did you think of your set? How did it compare to your last visit to Oberlin?
JF: Well, last time was awesome; the school is retarded hip. We were supposed to open for Dan Deacon, but we ended up headlining because he couldn’t make it. We played with Crime Novels and Video Hippos, which made it a really high-energy show automatically. The vibe was awesome. This time was pretty different.

OT: Yeah- not as many people were moving around or dancing as I thought.
JF: I think that’s just the nature of this show. I mean it was a Dan Deacon show technically last time, so the kids came to dance.

OT: What was the original vision for HEALTH?
JF: It wasn’t to play crazy ass music. It was mostly traditional rock music and post punk at first. Honestly, we weren’t too happy with it; we thought it sucked but we didn’t know how to do what we wanted to do. We just kept getting weirder and weirder. For the first four months we were together, we played the straightforward stuff live, but then people responded more to the weirder stuff so we ditched the old stuff.

OT: Are there any bands that inspired this shift in particular?
JF: There were a lot of rock bands that indirectly influenced us, like early Animal Collective. A band that directly influences us is Ex-Models, the New York band.

OT: You have received a lot of acclaim based on the remixes bands like Crystal Castles have done with your work. Are there any dream collaborations you foresee in the future?
J: Well, we’d like to do more actual collaborations. A dream would be Italians Do It Better’s Johnny Jewel. We’ve talked a little bit, but it’s still thoroughly out there. As far as remixes, Crystal Castles is really the best there is. A datA remix would be awesome, but they wanted money, and we don’t really want to do that. I’d love to be remixed by Mirage next, but he's (Jewel) been swamped lately. Emperor Machine would be cool too. I don’t know if this would fit with our sound, but it would be cool to work with Ratatat on a remix. Again, Italians Do It Better acts like Chromatics would be amazing.

OT: So what bands have you personally been listening to lately?
JF: I never get tired of Crystal Castles, obviously. I listen to Glass Candy and Chromatics every single day. I like a lot of Video Hippos and I love Dan Deacon too.

OT: How did you guys and Crystal Castles become acquainted?
JF: We have been internet friends for years. “Crimewave” is actually two years old, but it was just recently released. The split was supposed to be done over a year ago. It is really exciting to be with them on their first ever headlining tour. They’re getting so fucking huge in the UK. I mean, it’s apples to oranges, but they’re fucking gigantic.

OT: Yeah, it’s crazy. I remember when I first heard “Crimewave” and it was so fresh and under the radar. Speaking of the tour, if you had to pick one band to tour with in an ideal world, who would it be?
JF: I’m not even lying; Crystal Castles is number one on the list of bands, for sure.

OT: Well we’re so lucky to have this tour come through. Thanks for the intense set, and I hope you come back soon.
JF: Yeah, for sure. Get ready for an amazing live show. Crystal Castles is always sick.

Sick indeed. Not many bands are as mysterious as Crystal Castles. Unwilling to be interviewed after a catastrophic misquoting experience in which a journalist painted a portrait of CC as a “mistake band,” Glass and Kath have flown way under the radar. Which, of course, makes them irresistible and, ironically enough, even more widely adored. Through the sweaty excitement resulting from HEALTH’s high-power set and the blaring hormonal need for Oberlin to dance to thrash-electro during midterms week, Ethan Kath could be discerned setting up various MicroKorgs and keyboards. He reportedly found the first keyboard used in CC in a Toronto dumpster, and outfitted it with Atari 5200 chips and TurboGrafx sound effects. My common sense would lead me to believe that with their recent raging success amongst neon and vintage-clad twenty-somethings worldwide, Kath has probably been able to afford something a little nicer than garbage for his mysterious, shadowy set-up. Throughout the show, Kath remained in the corner, hooded sweatshirt obscuring his face almost entirely.

All lights were dimmed as Alice Glass mystically appeared on stage, wearing ultra-hip, ripped red tights with matching eye makeup and a simple, black skirt and tee shirt combo. Strobe lights flashing, warped video game beats pounding, Glass trounced around stage, sometimes crawling and dragging the microphone on the stage, breathing into it with a combination of raw sexual verve and ghostly anguish. Oberlin students congested the front row, desperately dancing and reaching out to touch Glass. Holding the strobe light in one hand and the microphone in the other, she peaked the audience’s attention, energy streaming from every corner of the ‘Sco.

It would be all too easy to neglect the existence of the drummer, since he is not officially a member of CC, nor were his beats significant in the context of the show. The high-hat and bass were used, but not to excess in order to showcase Kath’s signature twisted, synthesized glitches. I would say that the drummer’s proudest moment was probably when Glass climbed atop the drum set, howling and spitting out lyrics for one of the songs that first made them a famous internet musical act, “Alice Practice.”

Despite a relatively short set (CC is famous for only playing for about 25 minutes and then mysteriously disappearing), everyone seemed incredibly satisfied. Hits like “Crimewave” and “Untrust Us” were played to perfection, sounding raw and exuberant while maintaining their recognizable structure and tone. The first few blips and high-pitched chromaticisms of “Crimewave” sent the ‘Sco into a frenzy, jumping up and down and mouthing the hardly-discernable lyrics of “Eyes lit, I pawn short breaths; a fawn's dark eye lids…dadadadadadie…” The highlights of the show were not the Myspace favorites, but were actually the brutally dissonant songs like “Love and Caring” and “Xxzxcuzx Me” in which the frenetic walls of sound ushered the audience to thrash their limbs every which-way as Glass flopped around on stage, possessed by the unrefined demon of electro-goddessdom.

It is no wonder why this eccentric act from Canada is so utterly “in.” Their full-length, self-titled debut was released on March 18th of this year, conveying a coarse brand of brilliance only expressed through musical risk and experimentation. This performance validated that Crystal Castles possesses the uncanny ability to spontaneously recreate and generate an even edgier and more danceable sound live.

Plus, anyone who was in the first row with me can attest to the fact that touching the shoulder of Alice Glass is in fact like touching Aphrodite on speed.

HEALTH - "Perfect Skin" mp3
Crystal Castles - "Courtship Dating" mp3
Crystal Castles - "Untrust Us" mp3

If you missed out on the show, this live compilation video of the song "Xxzxcuzx Me" is an accurate depiction of the Crystal Castles live experience.

Believe the Hype: Boys Noize Show Reviewed, Plus an Interview with Alex Ridha Himself!

80 tickets were pre-sold for the Wednesday night Boys Noize show, which means that at least 80 people were planning on failing their Thursday morning midterms. Personally, I counted the hours of shakin’ it to vigorous electronica as a prime studying opportunity for my German exam the next morning. I mean, that’s what they DO in Germany, right? Ja. That, and buy ridiculously hip, multicolored neon hats like the one Boys Noize DJ Alex Ridha was wearing all evening. Anyway, it looks like at least 80 of you have your priorities straight.

DJ Trees (AKA Oberlin senior Ted Rees) started off the show with increasingly energetic, intelligent techno beats. Trees took 2k8’s electronic sensibilities and added some 90s flare, smoothly mixing beats and melodic content to match the mood in the room. About 45 minutes before Boys Noize took the stage, people started to take notice of the high-octane dance music and began to flood the floor. Despite the punchy thuds of the bass and the growing audience of techno-appreciators, impatience for Boys Noize to take the stage was running rampant. I heard drunken screams of “Boys Noize!!!” floating through the ‘Sco and soon enough, Ridha arrived on stage.

Rotating sparkling silver skulls like the ones seen in sticker format all around campus for weeks before the show enshrouded Ridha with light as disembodied robot voices were manipulated by the turning of knobs, the pressing of buttons, and the changing of levels. Simultaneously, everyone in the now-crowded ‘Sco forgot that they had any midterms at all as Ridha pumped out jams from his new full-length album, “Oi Oi Oi,” as well as a couple of his ever-popular remixes. Some of the album tracks used at this show were made better, extended, and improvised upon. An example that sticks out to me as being particularly awesome was the live version of “The Battery,” in which a middle section was added with a thudding bass line that made many students around me sound as though they were either having an orgasm or had just realized the meaning of life.

The pulsating, feel-it-in-your-chest-cavity bass was a theme throughout the show. On songs like “Vergiftet” and “Lava Lava,” this was balanced out with screeching high points and siren-like pulses and echoes, driving people to pump their fists in the air and generally just throw themselves all over the place. These two songs were both extended mixes of recognizable grooves from the album. They were separated by a message machine recording we might all recognize from our own lives, in which a mother desperately inquires as to where you are and what you’re doing. It was comically distorted and robotified as only Boys Noize can do it, and prepared the audience for a second wave of sweaty dancing.

In practically every Boys Noize song, there is a “holy fuck” moment in which the beat drops, the bass comes in, or something unexpected and profoundly badass happens. I considered “& Down” to be the highlight of the show, as it is made up of a couple “holy fuck” moments on the record, but is continuously this way live. When Boys Noize tells you to “dance dance dance now” or “get down,” you do it. The track was masterfully mixed and improvised upon without interrupting the dense, grinding pulse.

If you came to the show only knowing one Boys Noize song, it was most likely the remix of Feist’s “My Moon My Man,” which has been played at practically every (decent) house party I have ever been to at Oberlin. Ridha teased the audience with snippets of this remix throughout his set, but when the actual remix was played all the way through, it was a little bit of a letdown in contrast to the other songs. Simply because of the nature of the remix, there are extended sections in which Feist croons, “Take it slow, take it easy on me…” which is exactly what Ridha did. It is testament to the rest of the Boys Noize library that the original mixes would be the best live, and that one of his most popular and energetic remixes would be comparatively sub-par.

During the whole set, Ridha maintained an understated bob-of-the-head, tap-of-the-toes, plus occasional grin at the audience contentment. This being said, Ridha looked just as upset as the rest of us when he realized it was almost 1:45 AM and it was time to get going. Although I was, as most of the other students, totally unpresentable and danced-out, I managed to talk to the charming German DJ (with the equally charming unibrow) after the show to discuss the set, his favorite projects, and his own record label.

The Oberlin Tritone: Hey! Great show; I wasn’t ready for it to be over yet!
AR: Thanks, yes. Me neither. There was so much I wanted to play but I ran out of time. It was a lot of fun though.

OT: What do you think of Oberlin? Do you like it here?
AR: Well, I really didn’t know what to except. It is a curious place. Even the name didn’t say anything to me, but then I found out that the city is into a lot of music and that the school is very famous. I thought, “Oh that’s great! The kids are into music!” So then I thought more something about the school, and I like it. I think it is good that so many people play music well, and then they are more likely to be into listening to good music.

OT: That’s definitely true. Speaking of that connection between listening and performance, how did you get into electronic music?
AR: I don’t remember any specific bands or DJs, but my brother was the one who got me into electronic music. He is ten years older than me. He listened to a lot of house music around 1986, and I got in touch with electronic music without even knowing that that was necessarily what it was.

OT: Do you want to talk a little about your record label?
AR: Oh, yes sure. I started the label in 2005 and since then, there have been 20 releases; 12 on vinyl only, but they are all digitalized by now as well. The plan was to only release my own music, but I liked the idea of using the label as a platform for fresh stuff that I like. I have been producing for ten years now, so it was the next step. I then released my own full-length album with my own label.

OT: That full length includes one of the most recognizable remixes of this year: your remix of Feist’s “My Moon My Man,” which is just one of many remixes you have done. Do you have a personal favorite?
AR: Yes, I really love the Kaiser Chiefs remix I did. It was released in June 2005, and then on CD in September 2005. Originally, the song was totally different. It was super fast. So I made it into new music. I also really have a passion for Depeche Mode, so I like that remix I did. With the Cut Copy remix, I didn’t like the original, and I don’t remix songs that I don’t like. But the verses were great, even though the chorus was horrible. So I made a complete new music, and I finished it in two days.

OT: Wow. Are you working on any collaborations right now?
AR: Yes. I have already done one remix of Gonzales, but now I am doing another one. I also just saw The Faint yesterday, and we are collaborating on a track called “Wet Floor,” which you can expect to be out in maybe September.

OT: That’s so exciting! Well, thank you so much for coming here and for the awesome show.
AR: Yes! Nice to be here!

Alex Ridha then departed in his swanky limo, leaving us electroheads and midterm slackers with a successful night. As Xavier of Justice puts it, “Boys Noize makes the words 'German,' 'techno,' and 'DJ' sound cool again.”

For those of you who didn't attend the show, this is why you should have:

Feist - "My Moon My Man (Boys Noize Remix)" mp3
Boys Noize - "& Down" mp3

Oberlin Student Helps Refugees in Belgium for Winter Term Project

European adventures could bring about images of exotic food, beautiful architecture, and a nightlife to die for, but some Oberlin students have managed to explore this side of the “Eurotrip” while simultaneously helping those in need. I sat down with Oberlin student Kelly Roberts for a one-on-one about her trip abroad for winter term studies.

The Oberlin Tritone: What exactly did you do for your winter term project?
KR: I went to Belgium with another five Oberlin students to volunteer at a refugee center called Fedasil.

OT: Why did you decide to do this?
KR: I thought it would be a good world experience for me. I wanted to learn about others’ stories and struggles. Some of the other students wanted to do it to improve their French or because Belgium had the foreign appeal. There was one girl who had worked with refugees before in America and wanted more experience with that.

OT: And where exactly in Belgium did this take place?
KR: A small town called Rixensart, which turns out to be the wealthiest village in Belgium, even though it didn’t exactly feel wealthy in the way we have come to view such things in America.

OT: Was it a fun town?
KR: It actually totally sucked. It was beautiful, with cobblestone streets, but there were only about two things to do outside of the refugee center, where we lived. One was The Chalet – a tiny, crowded bar. The other was The Video Factory, which is a movie rental place where they would sell snacks. The snack food was funny! Cool Ranch Doritos were called “Cool American” and popcorn bags had Uncle Sam on them.

OT: That is funny! What other cultural differences did you detect while you were there?
KR: Well, it seems like the Oberlin fashion is kind of based on that of European style. Music in Belgium was different than the popular music here. On the radio, you’d hear American top 40 from years ago, and if you went out, there was a lot of techno. There’s even a dance style called “techtronique,” which looks like marshal arts and rave dancing combined. It’s interesting that all their popular music is in English.

OT: Did you find your experience to be rewarding?
KR: It was different than I expected. I realized that people are all basically the same. We all want happiness and safety. I felt that our presence was valued, especially since we were new faces in the center. Sometimes it seemed like we were pretty scandalous because we would hang out with the men, playing pool and talking. There were gender divisions we didn’t expect. Also, I wore PJ’s one day, and got asked if America was really that casual!

OT: Would you recommend this to other Oberlin students?
KR: Yes, but with some changes. There needs to be more communication and understanding of what the project is before embarking on it. It was poorly organized. I wouldn’t do it again, because I felt that our roles were not clearly defined and we sometimes felt useless. We would have liked more responsibility than we actually had.

Genghis Tron and Their Magestic Beards: An Interview with Michael Sochynsky

Genghis Tron is not your grandmother’s favorite band. They 1) sound like Aphex Twin one minute and inexplicably virtuosic grindcore the next, 2) make a three-piece band devoid of bass or drums feel like an unsparing wave of sound, 3) have written songs about boiling rock candy ashes, and 4) kicked so much ass at the ‘Sco last year that we just had to have them back on March 7th.

Consisting of Mookie Singerman (vocals & keyboards), Michael Sochynsky (keyboards & drum programming), and Hamilton Jordan (guitar & drum programming), Genghis Tron has been active since 2004, when they formed at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. Now based in Philadelphia, Genghis Tron released their first EP in 2005, Cloak of Love.

Genghis Tron commands mastery of the artful transition. Songs like “Laser Bitch” off of Cloak of Love can evolve from a groove reminiscent of New Deal to a jarring tech-metal culmination. These progressions were built upon for their next full-length release, Dead Mountain Mouth (2006), an undeniably more ferocious album replete with darker lyrics, end-of-days-worthy screaming, and totally skillful electronic backdrops, breakdowns, and interludes. Their newest full-length, Board Up the House, was just unleashed this February 19th on the Relapse record label. With more audible industrial, Intelligent Dance Music (IDM), and experimental direction, this record has captured the brutality of Dead Mountain Mouth while haunting electronic beats tie the album together.

Recently, I spoke with Genghis Tron keyboardist and drum programmer Michael Sochynsky. We discussed the new album, the band’s experience at Oberlin last year, politics and lyrics, as well as answering some questions I have been dying to ask ever since I got myself tangled up in this cybergrindcore-electronica-whatever-the-hell-it-is…music.

The Oberlin Tritone: I am really excited about the new album, Board Up the House. It seems to have heightened IDM, ambient and industrial influences. What inspired that shift?

Michael Sochynsky: I guess we’ve always kind of tried to have that kind of stuff mixed in to the heavier sounding stuff. But with the last album, Dead Mountain Mouth, we had a lot less time in studio to work on it. We had ten days to record then, and we had a month this time. So we had a lot more time to make sure that the sort of quieter, electronic parts were, like, more up-front and prevalent on the album. And I guess also, we also thought that the last album we did was good but it was almost too brutal and heavy, and like almost hard to get through because it was punishing and harsh, basically.

OT: The contrast is amazing on this album, musically. Lyrically, songs like “White Walls” and “Chapels” off of your last record had some extremely intense lyrics. Has writing lyrics for the new album been a different experience?

MS: Mookie, the singer, wrote the lyrics. Definitely, the last album was more personal and about various things were happening to people in the band, but at the same time the lyrics were what I perceived as being kind of cryptic and coded and it wasn’t exactly clear what a lot of songs were actually about. On this album, the lyrics are more accessible and apply to everybody - global things.

OT: “Dead Mountain Mouth” is a definite connection to TS Eliot’s famous poem, “The Waste Land.” How does this fit into your lyrical style? Can we expect more poetry references in this album?

MS: I don’t know. I mean, people get really into the fact that we lifted a phrase from “The Waste Land.” It wasn’t a particularly significant choice; it was more like that the phrase sounded cool and connected to what the album was about in a loose way. With the new one, we wanted to make it more positive and uplifting, not so, so fucking angry all the time. I don’t know if we succeeded with that. I think we did, to a certain degree because I think this album is a lot more melodic. It’s still heavy and intense and the lyrics ended up being about how the future looks, how we’re sort of at the end of times: so many horrible things happening around the world, and no one really trying to stop them. So that’s not really the most uplifting message, but we tried to make it a little more positive.

OT: How was the environment at Vassar, where the three of you met? Did that lead up to the political style of the lyrics?

MS: There’s no politics at Vassar. Most students are very apolitical. I found that my classes’ teachers were more left-leaning than the students. I was there when the Iraq war just started. Being on a campus honestly didn’t have any bearing on the band at all. It was just where we happened to be. During summer or winter breaks we’d basically just tour all the time. We didn’t really have a music scene on campus either. There were only a few campus bands.

OT: How did such an innovative band form within that kind of environment?

MS: Basically, it was sort of a drunken promise between me and Hamilton, the guitarist. I’d run into him at a party or something and be like, “Oh, yeah, we have to start this hilarious band…” We realized that we had a common interest in extremely heavy music, like grindcore and death metal, stuff like that. But also we were both into IDM and other electronic music. We were like, “Oh, we have to make this hilarious band where it’s grindcore one minute and then it sounds like Boards of Canada.” So eventually we sat down and actually did it, made a few songs and they were kinda ok.

OT: I’m sure some Oberlin students can relate to that. What did you think of Oberlin last time you came?

MS: Oh my gosh - it was so awesome. It was like totally insane. I couldn’t believe how many people were there. I couldn’t believe how totally massive and insane and energetic the audience was, like it was seriously one of the craziest shows we’ve ever played, definitely in recent memory. I hope it’ll be the same this time. It’s gonna be real energetic and crazy. Everyone should be ready to party and go nuts.

OT: I can’t wait! Well Michael, thank you for talking to me today, and for coming back to Oberlin.

MS: Yeah! See you at the show!

So, if you like electronic music, metal, dancing, crazy shit, noises, the Mongols, 1986 neon sci-fi, and beards, you have finally found your niche. The Boston-based noise/garage rock band, Clouds, along with student metal band, Goatsucker, will be opening for Genghis Tron at the ‘Sco on March 7^th. Tickets are $4 for students and $8 for general admission.

Genghis Tron - "City on a Hill" mp3

Here is a video of last year's performance at the 'Sco. The song is "Board Up the House."