J. Robbins with Drew O'Doherty | The Lily Pad | 7 Oct.

Folks of a certain age likely think of J. Robbins as the guy listed as the recording engineer on a million indie rock CDs from the last decade. But Mr. Robbins' personal history has greater musical import (not to discount his excellent recordings), first as one of the main creative engines (if not *the* main creative engine) in D.C. post-hardcore legends Jawbox, and later as the fronter of Burning Airlines. Jawbox's superlative collection For Your Own Special Sweetheart, released in 1994, practically defined the term post-hardcore, and it contains what may be our favorite 'box jam, "Reel," a blazing live performance of which is embedded above. But if you dig back even further, say to "Paint Out The Light" from 1990's Grippe released on Dischord, you'll see that Robbins has been turning out great music for a startlingly long time. Robbins makes a very rare local appearance Friday night, performing an early, all-ages, acoustic show at The Lily Pad in Cambridge. According to this Facebook event page, Robbins will be performing songs from his older bands as well as some from his latest project Office Of Future Plans. Advance tickets can be obtained through this EventBrite page. Doors at 6:30 and the show starts at 7PM sharp with Drew O'Doherty opening.

Even When You're Bent Like A Swan: The A Weather Interview

Portland, Ore.-based A Weather are presently waist-deep into their second U.S. tour, which is supporting the release of the slow-core revivalists superlative sophomore set Everyday Balloons [review here]. Everyday Balloons seems mildly obsessed with sleep, and the narratives all seem as if they could have been written solely about what can be seen from a bed by a window. The new collection is lusher, denser and even relatively kaleidoscopic compared to the stunning, quieter debut album Cove, which we named one of the best of the last decade right here. A Weather plays P.A.'s Lounge this coming Monday, and so we thought we'd check in with fronter Aaron Gerber for insight into the new record and the band's prior experience touring. Mr. Gerber very graciously met our cascade of questions, and our exchange appears in lightly edited form below.

CC: You mentioned that growing up as a young person in Maine you'd travel down to Boston for rock shows. What was the first show you saw here? See any heroes?

AG: I believe the first show I saw in Boston was Ida and Low playing at the Middle East. I was probably 16 or so at the time and there was some difficulty in actually getting into the show as it was 18 and over. The owner drew huge x's on my hands with permanent marker and made me stand by the door the whole performance. After the show we took a big group picture with both the bands. Somewhere there still exists a black and white photo of myself as a 16 year old posing with the members of Low and Ida. Other memorable [shows] include: Sunny Day Real Estate, Arab Strap, Wheat and of course Bedhead.

CC: You must have been terribly excited to do those 2008 tour dates with The New Year after having been a fan of Bedhead. As I think that was the first A Weather tour, did you learn anything from the Kadanes about life on the road?

AG: Yeah, that was our first tour outside of the Northwest. We were so fortunate to be asked to join them. It was a little surreal at first. We quickly discovered that, aside from making really great music, they were also really great people. You're always hoping that your heros will be decent people and it makes everything that much nicer when they are. All of the guys in that band were unbelievably supportive of A Weather and actually seemed to be legitimately into our songs as well. I remember after one particularly difficult show we had in Arizona Matt Kadane gave Sarah and I an encouraging back stage pep talk. They all kind of took us under their collective wing. As you are probably aware, in one song off of Cove we mention Bedhead. On Everyday Balloons I managed to sneak "the new year" into a lyric. The Kadane brothers better start another band before we record our third album.

CC: Moreso than with Cove, we continue to grapple with what certain of the new songs are communicating. Compositionally and musically, Everyday Balloons is a little more accessible and less stylistically restricted than the quiet music of Cove. But lyrically things seem even more open to interpretation. When you were writing these songs, did you think you were taking a new or different approach to the lyrics than you had previously?

AG: As a songwriter I'm never quite sure what will stick and what will sort of slide down the wall. One of the more interesting aspects of reading reviews of the record is seeing how listeners interpret the lyrics and attempt to summarize a given song. A lot of people think I'm writing exclusively relationship or break-up songs, and though I can see why they might say that, I do think Everyday Balloons covers more diverse thematic ground. I don't intentionally try to obscure my lyrics; if they are perceived as cryptic it might be due to my disinterest in linear narrative and my inability to stay with one idea or theme for more than a few lines. My favorite writing always hints at rather than completely reveals. I find it more fun to leave some of the work to the listener to draw his or her own connections between images and statements. That said, I do strangely feel like Everyday Balloons is more coherent and planned in terms of themes and motifs than Cove was.

CC: So what about all the guitars on Everyday Balloons, anyway? Not that it is like a Metallica record, or anything (far from it!). But was there a specific revelation or occurrence that made you think, "this next record is going to have more guitars, it's going to be louder."

AG: I made the switch from electric to acoustic a couple years ago before our tour with The New Year. Since our other guitar player Aaron Krenkel wasn't able to accompany us on most of the trip, we adapted the arrangements to play as a three piece. It made sense to play an electric guitar if there was only to be one guitar in the band (a bit fuller sounding with more dynamic possibilities). I also never had a really good pick-up for the acoustic and it was always a pain to get it loud enough without feeding back. It just seemed easier to play through an amp and have more control of the sound. When we started working on the songs for Everyday Balloons it was a progression of how we'd been performing live for the past six months or so. A lot of the songs came out of that slightly dirty guitar tone (that spot between clean and distorted) where there is the potential to go both quiet and loud. I've always been a fan of melodic feedback and ebows too, so playing electric allowed me to indulge in those sounds and explore some new textures that aren't on Cove. But also a lot of the songs on Everyday Balloons are based around the piano, too.

CC: So what is the touring line-up for A Weather this go-around? Will Mr. Krenkel be making all the dates?

AG: Unfortunately not. Aaron K. has some real life commitments to attend to, namely a new baby. It will just be Sarah, Lou and I again on this tour.

CC: What was the process like writing arrangements for this tour? Was it frustrating to have less at your disposal, or perhaps liberating because of the opportunities few moving parts may present? Were there some things that you tried to make work that just wouldn't?

AG: It has been fun to reinterpret these songs for a more minimal set up. The songs on Everyday Balloons have more layers to them than then ones on Cove, so it's been interesting to strip away the layers and see how little we can get away with while still maintaining the essence of the songs. At some points I'm trying to approximate the parts of two guitars with one and that has been challenging, trying to play both the chords and the melody simultaneously, but at other points you just have to embrace the limitations, go with the sparseness and not worry about trying to fill in all the negative space. Often the negative space is pretty useful as a gradation of the dynamics.

CC: What can we expect to hear in your live set? Will you will be doing material from Cove as well as Everyday Balloons? Are you hauling around a piano so Sarah can do "Midday Moon?"

AG: We are playing mostly songs from Everyday Balloons, but maybe one or two from Cove. No piano and not even bringing the Rhodes this time around. It's just electric guitar, bass and drums. It's funny you mention "Midday Moon," as earlier today we worked out an arrangement for guitar and bass. Though it would be cool to ride into a city with an upright piano strapped to the roof of our mini-van we decided to travel light this tour. A toy piano will make some appearances as well.

A Weather play P.A.'s Lounge in Somerville, Mass. Monday April 19; they are joined by Drew O'Doherty, The Acre and Bell And The Bees. All remaining tour dates are listed below.

A Weather -- "Giant Stairs" -- Everyday Balloons
A Weather -- "Third Of Life" -- Everyday Balloons
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[buy Everyday Balloons from Team Love right here]

04.15 -- Vaudeville Mews -- Des Moines, IA
04.16 -- 400 Bar -- Minneapolis, MN
04.19 -- P.A.'s Lounge -- Somerville, MA
04.20 -- Apohadion -- Portland, ME
04.21 -- The Lamb Abbey -- Montpelier, VT
04.22 -- AS220 -- Providence, RI
04.23 -- Union Hall -- Brooklyn, NY
04.25 -- Galaxy Hut -- Washington DC
04.26 -- Joe Squared -- Baltimore, MD
04.28 -- Off Broadway -- St. Louis, MO
04.29 -- The Czar Bar -- Kansas City, MO
04.30 -- Jackpot -- Lawrence, KS

A Weather: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Previous A Weather Coverage:
Today's Hotness: Calories, William, Lali Puna, A Weather
Be Prepared: A Weather | Everyday Balloons | 2 March
Clicky Clicky Music Blog's Top Albums 2000-2009
Clicky Clicky's Top Albums Of 2008
Review: A Weather | Cove [MP3]

Today's Hotness: Helms, Interpol, Archers of Loaf

[PHOTO CREDIT: Brad Searles] >> We were intent on seeing Friday night's Callum Robbins benefit without writing about it. Sometimes we just like to go to shows without constantly considering "well, how are we going to describe that?" But, as usual, we feel compelled to discuss the show, held at Somerville, Mass.'s P.A.'s Lounge and arranged by former Karate band leader Geoff Farina. The bill had Drew O'Doherty opening, Mr. Farina and indie rock journeyman Chris Brokaw supporting as a duo (with a record of interpretations of folk and blues classics on the way), angular rock luminaries Helms supporting and noise provocateurs Neptune top-lining. As we've seen Neptune a couple times [one, two] previously, we ducked out before they began. But we were especially impressed with Mr. O'Doherty and Helms. The former is a very compelling singer-songwriter with an effortless baritone not dissimilar to that of Richard Buckner. He had been an unknown quantity to us before Friday evening despite some glowing (and, it turns out, well-deserved) praise coming from The 'Nac.

Helms we've been a fan of since the release of 2002's McCarthy, which we reviewed here for Junkmedia. Friday afternoon we'd gotten a tip that Helms guitarist Sean McCarthy had broken his arm, so we were fearful the band might not play and another chance to see them would elude us. But, not unlike when we saw Neptune open for Mission Of Burma, Mr. McCarthy showed up (we heard it was actually a broken collar bone at the show, and not a broken arm, but still), presumably played through considerable discomfort, and kicked a lot of ass along with bassist/wife (we think) Tina and drummer/brother Dan. Helms was an unstoppable force Friday night, humorous between songs but driving and hypnotic when playing. There's no excuse why we've never seen them all these years, but you can bet we will see them again. And we're buying their latest record, 2006's Secret Doors on History Major Records, as soon as we finish writing this. The band is offering the excellent track "It Takes Skin To Win" as a download at its MySpace wigwam here, and it is one of our favorites, so we'll offer it, too, even though we already did about 11 months ago here. What can we say, we can't get enough. Speaking of digital audio, Mr. 'Nac recorded both nights of the Callum benefits and we expect you will have the opportunity to hear them sometime pretty soon over there.

Helms -- "It Takes Skin To Win" -- McCarthy
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[follow the links at the Helms web site to buy their music]

And because we had joked with Mr. 'Nac prior to the show that we'd donate an extra $10 if Farina played the old Karate classic "Today Or Tomorrow" from 1997's In Place Of Real Insight, here's that track, too.

Karate -- "Today Or Tomorrow" -- In Place Of Real Insight
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[buy Karate records from Newbury Comics here]

>> We finally made it to Newbury Comics Thursday for some record shopping. You are reading the words of the man who received the last Interpol/Newbury Comics co-branded pint glass given away as a promo with the sale of the new Our Love To Admire. We also received with our purchase of Interpol's major label debut a vinyl single for "The Heinrich Maneuver" backed with an instrumental version of the album track "Mammoth." And it was by inspecting the vinyl single that we learned that the latest Interpol set was produced with Rich Costey, who around these parts is best known for producing the Lilys' peerless third record Eccsame The Photon Band. Interesting.

>> Other notes from our shopping trip. We had previously stated that the new They Might Be Giants record The Else was produced by Jon Brion. It was actually produced by The Chemical Dust Brothers [DOH!]; we regret the DOUBLE error. We don't know how we got that into our heads. Oh well. We listened to the record and it falls a little flat in our opinion. Interestingly enough, the set comes with a bonus disc that we enjoy more. It's titled Cast Your Pod To The Wind and it's got a bit more quirk, the compositions seem a little brighter and sharper and have a bit more of the duo's characteristic humor. So there you go.

>> Hey, did you know that Last.fm offers on-demand streams of some of the Archers Of Loaf's catalog, including the vinyl singles? Not only that, but also the social networking site offers downloads of a number of Archers tracks, including "Step Into The Light" and "Harnessed In Slums," the first two cuts of the excellent 1995, Bob Weston-recorded masterwork Vee Vee. And certainly if you've never heard "Web In Front" and "Wrong" from the band's debut full length, Last.fm's got free downloads of those, too. "Web In Front" might be the quintessential '90s indie rock track.

>> A couple odd requests: anybody have an MP3 of Lint's one-sided 7" "Fifth Floor," released on Plumb Records in 1996 or so? For those of you who don't recall it, there is more information here, including this description: "Lint is a "supergroup" of sorts. Members of The Swirlies, Spore, Milkmoney, Victory At Sea, SK-70, Landfill, AM Stereo, Grace Budd and more get together to play music unlike anything else they do... every song features a different singer and somewhat different sound." We're also hoping someone has ripped an old 7" by a band called Retriever for the song "Q-Tip." Get in touch if you've got the songs handy. It's been years since we heard them, and we've lost the cassette we recorded them to in college.