Music is all about doing what you feel is right, even if that includes quitting a band by storming offstage and hitchhiking home. That’s how Gypsyblood was born, and now the duo has an album, Cold In The Guestway (Sargent House), due out April 12 and is playing SXSW as we speak. Clearly, Adam James and Kyle Victor know a thing or two about riding the wave and letting the right things happen, as evidenced by this mix tape they made for MAGNET. Says James, ”We have never been a lyrically driven bunch and won’t claim to know what anyone was talking about when they wrote a song. That’s the worst! You don’t know how upset I was when I found out Type O Negative’s “Christian Woman” was written about Peter Steele’s cat (R.I.P.). But rather, we’re here to identify a feeling. The kind of feeling only a select few of us have had. The kind of feeling you get when you continually press repeat on a song in your car, Walkman or iPod, not knowing exactly why your doing it. It just comes over you. If you know what we are talking about then you are on the right path. The first part is not only connecting to it, but being open to it. Like a wave coming over your being or the wind smashing the glasses on your face as you ride. We have a surefire driver of essentials sprawling out of the stretchmarks of our 20th-century collective ideal. These tracks came from our collective conscious, and being open to that will surely lead you down an equal road. So without further ado, we in Gypsyblood have provided “Our Collective Consciousness Mix” or “Our Mix For The 21st Enlightenment.”
“Take Your Picture” (download):
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Echo & The Bunnymen “Angels And Devils”
First, Echo & The Bunnymen share with us who we are. Having perspective and realizing where you’ve come from is essential. If there is anything AA has taught us it’s recognition. And you can’t deny the modern draw back to the Velvet Underground in this track. That oh-so-Mo-Tucker beat; any “drummer” can’t perfect it as they toss in a fill or two. Not only have these guys pulled from their roots with regards to tone and musicality but in lyrical content as well. Religion has delivered us out of our animal nature in recognizing it. And Ian McCulloch brings us there and back with that chilling howl and moan. Just like the album’s title Ocean Rain, this bonus track flows through itself. This is a band that has always unified Kyle and me. Like the Greek gods Athena and Dionysus, too much of one or the other leads into itself, and as humans that is us at our truest point of being. Let’s understand where we’ve come from, embrace it and move on to the future. Audio
The Starlite Desperation “Our Product”
Recognizing where we are currently, “Our Product” gives us a glimpse of the schizo-aesthetic that is now expected of us to be essential to this multi-tasking world we’ve boxed ourselves into. This is a track that we first heard on quite arguably, one of the best compilations we’ve ever come in contact with. Sonny Kay is not only known for his insane artwork but also the amazing label and collective of musical acts he held while heading GSL. The rhythm section is so masterfully driving, raw and catchy; if this popped on and I was standing next to a heaping vat of sulfuric acid while chewing gum, texting and getting directions away from there, I would have no choice but to dance right the fuck in. It has such a small touch of Gary Glitter, while maintaining this very Fugazi Argument-era quality to it. The best are the vocals and the screams in the background now and then. Once in a great while there are tracks that come out giving you a glimpse into someone’s head, and I believe this to be one of them, if not our collective consciousness screaming at us for breath. Audio
My Bloody Valentine “I Can See It (But I Can’t Feel it)”
Nina Simone once said, “You use up everything you got trying to give everybody what they want.” And this track says it all, “Come just to make you happy.” There is no doute about it, Kevin Shields pulls you through this song. But it isn’t a struggle, rather a polite drag through gravel if your mind said it felt like pillows. We keep on doing it and don’t know why. Our humanness is sometimes our biggest enemy. And our understanding is key, but understanding leading to empathy without action is deceiving of that. We keep walking through that door out of our humanistic need for repetition. As the bright strumming acoustic engages the layers of dirt on bass and guitar, they battle for the hauntingly hookish vocal tones throughout. “I can see it, but I can’t feel it” states our wonderfully beautiful reasons to staying in this state of mind and/or moving on. Audio
Mahjongg “The Stubborn Horse”
How we have yet to see this song on a big three-automobile commercial is just astounding. It’s soooo slick, clean and driving. Maybe it’s the title that is just far too telling of most vehicles these days. I honestly don’t think we’ve ever used “fresh” to describe music before, but this song immediately puts us in an orchard. Just name one and it’s there. Since we’ve been in Chicago, this ragtag bunch of geniuses has remained on our list of Chicago staples since day one. Always maintaining consistency, Mahjongg will start every party and/or weekend off in the right direction. This stubborn horse stays in us and always will. We couldn’t beat it out if we tried. Understanding its tendencies will only take you in the right direction. Video
The Stone Roses “Waterfall”
These lads had it! The song’s intro welcomes the rest of it so gracefully. We assure you, there aren’t many tracks as upright and celebratory as this. “She’ll carry on through it all/She’s a waterfall” leaves no place for doubt in our consciousness. Our eyelids have been lifted to aspects that have been, are and will always be. Now take comfort in the waterfall. A better future lay ahead. While the main guitar melody and vocal draw from a very distinctive Western European stream of musicality that can’t help but flow through, the Stone Roses scream, “We want a future that’s not the past.” In doing so, they’ve broken all their promises and start anew. Audio
Suicide “Keep Your Dreams”
Alan Vega is truly a force not to be reckoned with. And with this, we take the idea of our old collective dreams and laugh in its face. The beat is upfront and pulsing as we walk through the park on our deathbed. It’s truly confrontational at first, but comforting in its satire. That farfisa organ is uncompromising in its force, whipping us back and forth. Unchanging as we “keep that feeling burning forever.” It’s as frightening as the child in a concentration camp dreaming to get out. He has moved on and will always be there. We have all witnessed pain in our times; let’s unify in that and celebrate with the suicide of our collective ideal. Bigger is not better; the minimum is as good as it will ever be. So don’t forget to have a laugh and dance while your at it. Audio
The Clean “Point That Thing Somewhere Else”
“Don’t point me out in a crowd/Don’t point that thing at me.” Lyrically carries a breadth of indistinction suggesting that a finger is as powerful as a pistol. In saying so, if you’re still with us, you are acknowledging your truth. Don’t be afraid; you aren’t alone. There are others who think this way as the collective consciousness has hit and won’t let go. We’ve always been connected and will continue to be, before this world and onto the next. We know it seems like chaos with nothing to hold onto. But take our word for it, the Clean is one of the best bands to guide you. Its catalogue is available through Merge Records and takes you through the Clean’s journey. The guitars on this track are simply the best. They echo each other while competing and living in harmony. And it wouldn’t sound as genuine without one another. I can’t think of any other song that does this. To this day we strive for these tones. One day we will be successful. But the time is now for our research in this new world. Video
The Fall “Cruiser’s Creek”
That we only have this audio excerpt shows that we can take as much as you want from the Fall. But at the end of the day, Mark E. Smith is the one and only! The whole song is just as much a narrative as it is repetitive (as is much of the Fall catalogue), proving that literacy with a hammer will cut through anything as long as you carry the hooks. Just as Fela Kuti did with “Zombie” and other classics in Afrobeat, Smith does it time and time again with Western thought while being just as sexy and cool. Even we, who aren’t ashamed of looking like part of the cast from One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, wave in seduction to this tune while the guitar and drums just smash. In the nature of constant, you are always driving, I know we keep saying that, but it’s just so damned true! Like the party you swore you left an hour ago, there is something about this song that just sticks with you every time. It’s like the old woman’s soul in the emerald ring you bought at the thrift store last month. She put her being there, and now it just won’t go away! But it has nothing to do with you. So see it for what is and forget it. Literacy is steadfast in the collective. Don’t try to force it; just give it some bubblegum. Audio
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti “My Molly”
At the end of the day, any Gypsyblood out there is a romantic. Hopeless used to be the phrase. But Ariel Pink leaves you anything but with “My Molly.” Only available on seven-inch to my knowledge, this is my favorite APHG song of all time. Not only is his music dark and undeniably poppy, but this song has a driving maliciousness in it that makes sense when you hear that he recorded the song when he was 19. Our society as a whole has single-handedly taken away the credibility of our American teenagers over the last 30 years, reducing them to a petty, pretty bunch with no experience or knowledge of the real world around them and incidentally robbing generations of their future and any chance to make a difference before they become the jaded masses. It’s songs like this and artists like Ariel Pink that bring conviction, heart and depth out to the open. Now we are truly capable. Video
Heavy Times “Poison Ivy”
Well we’ve reached the conclusion of this journey with our last track, only to continue in this moment and those of the tracks before it again and again. Equal in joy and happiness and pain and suffering. It’s bittersweet. Not half full or half empty, but rather always full and empty. The glass has us either way. We can’t deny it, only embrace it. And with that, we are certainly here to embrace the hooks of these Heavy Times. This is a Chicago gem that continues to not get enough credit for roaming as many styles as it does. Combining a Misfits contempt for pop while riding a surf wave to the edge of a cliff made of metal and sludge. Link Wray and Buzz Osbourne would agree that these boys pull it off every time. Even while recording guitars and vocals for “Cold In The Guestway” at the Lost Inn Spaces on Carroll Street, these guys were practicing in our old room next door and I would hear them through the air vents from time to time and continually be blown away. That was even before their drummer and head of Rotted Tooth Recordings, Kyle Reynolds, got involved. They did a great vinyl release for this album and, like collective consciousness, have their hooks fixed into our being. Transcending our humanness into the future, past and present. Video
Well we hope you had fun! When it comes down to it, reality has been proven to be a variable, and we are here to tell you that your being is clear. Medication won’t give you clarity, but we hope this has. We just want to accomplish that with a little shimmy and a little shake. # =)
