Even more astonishing than the brilliant depths that this album has uncovered for the first time in all musical history is the fact that masterminds Valiant B and MC Hot Drankz were willing to sit down with me (for the second time) and talk about this momentous album and its inevitable future impact on the music industry.

(special note – the editor has kindly cleaned up the worst spelling and grammar errors found throughout this article)

So first of all, your last album featured a third rapper who called himself “D3,” but WIR:DCA didn’t feature him at all.  Is he a full member of Da Korum or not?

MC Hot Drankz:  Yo first of all before I get this interview started I would be remiss if I didn’t shout-out to all my homies back home that deserve honorable mention.  That includes DJ Home Invader, G-Bidness, the North-West Tank Drivas, Coin-Money and the Dubloons, my boys out floatin on the moon Titan, St. Peter, the 2 Pow3rful Crew, Numb3rs 4 L3tt3r$, TH Zone, MC Apollo 13, DJ Santa Clawz, Infinit, the RockStonePosse, Larry, Ship$hape, Da Organ Donaz,  the Gravelz, Da Pokemon Cardz, MC Frozen Pea$, Refrigeration Unit, Circus Monkey, Da Killa Gnomes,  Hammer-Abi and the Codez, Baby Albert,  Dishwalla, Johnny Virgil, ZamBronie, Boom Shaka Laka Zulu, the Egyptian Mothership of Funk, Da Mall Fountain Money, Baron Von Rat, and Alexander Graham Bell.

Valiant B:  So yeah, you know, D3 is our bro, know what I’m saying?  The thing with D3 is he is like a wolf. He is doin’ his own thing. I think he opened a karate dojo in Brazil or somethin’.

MC Hot Drankz:  Yeah, shout out to all the Brazilians out there.  Anyway D3 ain’t a full memba because Da Korum has always been just two members:  me and Valiant B.  Any more than 2 and it ain’t Da Korum. It would be Da Group of People, or Da Assembly, which just don’t quite have the same flow.

Which is ironic because don’t you need 12 to make a quorum?

MC Hot Drankz:  I’m really not sure what that means dude.

So what gave you the idea to create a concept album instead of your more traditional EP format?

Valiant B:  Da Korum always takes it to the next level.  Other artists come wearing a suit, so we show up in a tuxedo, know what I’m saying?  But really we want to live up to our reputation for being “deeper than a scuba diver” like I said in our Worldz Without Numba EP.  And what’s deeper than a concept album?  Yo we deeper than the Arctic Ocean, and we colder too.

MC Hot Drankz:  Dawg, that’s the shallowest of all the oceans.

Valiant B:  Ok, well then we deeper than the Mariana Trench. Like, we be floatin’ in magma in the Earth’s mantle, ya dig?

MC Hot Drankz:  Really I came up with the idea because I was listening to Captain Beefheart and I was like, “This speaks to me – I want to create a modern, accessible hip hop version of Captain Beefheart at his best.”

So you would cite Captain Beefheart as an influence?

MC Hot Drankz:  No dawg, Captain Beefheart is wack.  We ain’t got no influences.

Valiant B:  Yeah, we are the only artists with NO influences – we influence all other artists though.  That’s why I call our style of music Ex Nihilo Hip Hop – it comes outta nowhere.  But then all other music descends from us.  So that’s why I call our style Prokaryote Hip Hop.

That’s a lot of styles.

Valiant B:  Yo well, you could say dat “Ex Nihilo Hip Hop” and “Prokaryote Hip Hop” are really just “rigid designators” of the same object and this is true in all possible worlds, according to Kripke.  Yo Hot Drankz you forgot to shout-out to Saul Kripke when we started da interview.  If Da Korum has any influences, it’s Saul Kripke in da house.

Speaking of theology and descent, let’s get into the substance of the album.  In your track “Deep Thotz,” you specifically mention doubts about human evolution.  Would you call yourself Creationists then?

Valiant B:  Yeah dude, we Creationists. We believe dat God made da world in 7 tracks. Ya feel me?

MC Hot Drankz:  No I believe in evolution, but we didn’t come from monkeys, we came from otters.  You can verify that.  That’s why humans like the beach.  Straight up, scientists need to release the truth to the public.

Valiant B: At first I thought this theory was faulty, but it totally makes sense. That’s why we like crayfish.

MC Hot Drankz:  Yeah crayfish are like da crawdads of the ocean.

Hot Drankz, you seem to have written the most intimate, revealing song about yourself in “Flying (Drankz’ Dr3am).”

MC Hot Drankz:  Agreed.

And that guitar solo is killer.

MC Hot Drankz:  Also agree.

But does it reveal that there might be hidden tensions in the band between you and Valiant B?

MC Hot Drankz:  Man people gotta remember that this is just an album.  It’s all fantasy.  So just because it seems like there’s conflict between us don’t mean that there actually is.

Valiant B:  Yeah, all music has to have conflict.  That’s how you keep it real.  Hot Drankz ain’t really sick of me all the time.

MC Hot Drankz:  Even if I were I wouldn’t go around writing or dreaming about it.  It’s such a small part of the album anyway.

WIR:DCA seems to contain multiple narrative layers wrapped in more layers.  How did you keep all the separate strands straight?

MC Hot Drankz: Yo, our album is kinda complicated, and we understood that. That’s why we will soon be selling a laminated poster we made that is a listener’s guide to our album. It shows all of the concurrent storylines and signals their distinct planes. Plus we used smelly markers so it smells like a fruit salad. We also made a wallet sized version so you can explain it to your friends.

Valiant B: Yeah, we hope the album will reveal itself over time- truthfully, I only listen to this album, and I still don’t understand it at all. It’s pretty whack.

MC Hot Drankz:  Well I like to think it’s like a cross between Inception and an optical illusion of sound.

Valiant B:  Yeah, it’s like if a Gestalt rabbit/duck had a baby with MC Escher and the result was this album. Or like those Magic Eyes books. Yo, those was whack. I could never get them to work.

So all your fans are asking:  was that really Snoop Dogg on the album or someone else?  Also, was the storyline intended to be an actual dream, or is it real?

MC Hot Drankz:  I’ll let listeners come to their own conclusions, but I’ll help them out by saying that true dreams… are real if you believe them.  But that’s all just a fantasy.  Or is it?

Your last song on the EP, “Dance Movez ($take Dance Song)” seems to be a deliberate effort to break into the Mormon market.  Has MC Hot Drankz finally embraced his religious heritage?

MC Hot Drankz:  Yeah, [laughs] that’s funny that you mention that – I’m active in my own religion that is separate from LDS but it also involves going to LDS church pretty often because my Dad makes me.  I still get a lot of inspiration from Elder’s Quorum, like that’s where I learned that tha government gonna steal all our food storage.

Valiant B:  Yeah, that’s no lie.

MC Hot Drankz:  But seriously though, I think the LDS church is really just a metaphor for a Greater Church that’s really on a higher fractal level to humanity.  But dude, what if that Greater Church is really just a metaphor for da LDS church?  That’s the real question we should be pondering.

Valiant B: Yo, da real scoop is, MC Hot Drankz just needs to read the scriptures. All his whack ideas would be clarified.

MC Hot Drankz:  I’m just waiting for the new version to come out.  But I like to think of our new album as “Da Sealed Portion.”

So this album features both MC Hot Drankz AND Valiant B on guitar.  Does this mean Hot Drankz will be taking more of a back seat to Valiant’s guitar playing?

MC Hot Drankz:  Yo dawg you did not just say that.

You stated that you’re always taking things to the next level.  What does the future hold for Da Korum?  Where do you go from here?

Valiant B:  Yeah we experimenting with different ideas, but it would be pretty hard to top What I$ Reality?: Da Concept Album.  One thing that would really take things up a notch is to get some dope recording software.  Right now we just recordin on demo software that keeps asking us to register.

MC Hot Drankz:  Yeah we also experimenting with the idea of signing to a major label, like Virgin, Sub Pop, or Feel Good Music Coalition.

So you are fans of Young Sim’s Feel Good Music?

MC Hot Drankz:  Naw, we just recognize that all their music is basically influenced by us.  Like, they basically a carbon copy tribute label for Da Korum.

Valiant B:  But you know we ain’t gonna sue or anything – we flattered that they like us so much.  Like we said, basically all music is directly influenced by Da Korum, and that includes Young Sim’s crew, but we willing to talk numbers if they want to sign us.

MC Hot Drankz:  Yeah, we’d even let them sign us, that’s how flattered we are.

To check out Da Korum’s new EP, What I$ Reality?: Da Concept Album, follow this link to their Bandcamp!

I reviewed the album in a digital download form and found that the download contained much more than just music. Graphics from the album are included, as is a scanned copy of a handwritten thank you note from Jake. Most interesting though was a large booklet, which was conveniently provided in a number of different e-reader formats. Right about here is where things started to get weird, interesting, or sentimental – depending on how you look at it. The included e-book comes in at over 40 pages. In the preface, we learn that the songs were inspired by the life of Henry Pickett Pratt, who was born in 1866, and left a journal about some of his early life – a journal which was read by Jake Workman. Something about this man and his experiences struck a chord (pun intended) with Jake, and provided the inspiration for the songs on the album. The e-book includes portions of the journal that provide a backdrop of sorts for the songs. Jake has intended for the journal and the music to be enjoyed simultaneously in order to get the full experience of what he intended to create and capture.

Unusual? Yes, but this is just the beginning as we learn that Henry Pickett Pratt and the journal are complete fiction. Prior to writing the song “Pickett”, Jake had never written a song that wasn’t personal, and he found it very liberating to write from a fictional point of view, about a fictional character. Inspired to expand upon this experience, he continued writing and found that his lyrics could not contain the storyline, and so he created the “journal” to go with the songs.

It’s an interesting approach – a rather unlikely and unexpected project, and a concept that Jake hopes to further develop in the future. My curiosity was peaked, so after skimming through some of the journal, I began to dive into the music.  Appropriately enough, the album is largely acoustic driven – real drums, guitar, bass and mandolin, with a good scattering of electric guitar to shake things up. Jake plays all of the instruments except for the drums.

I hear a number of influences in the music – everything from Folk and Americana, to Classic Rock, to some Alternative, New Wave, and Modern elements. In spite of a few beautiful intricacies scattered throughout his arrangements, much of the music is simple in nature overall, and sets the mood of a simpler time and place. This is not an “old-timey” album though, as I was constantly reminded by the melodies, electric guitar, and song structure, which provide some modern, artistic contrast to the acoustic simplicity at the core of each song. Jake seems completely free as an artist to make unexpected twists and turns as he tells these storied songs – easily shrugging off the “rules” and confines of commercial songwriting in favor of something more organic and free spirited. While “mainstream” audiences might not embrace this, I understand and respect where he was coming from, and find that it is consistent with the setting of the story he is trying to tell.

I found parts of this album very relaxing and nostalgic, reminding me of days spent in my youth playing guitar on the front porch or sitting around a campfire, and in that way, it was very endearing. At the same time, there is a good balance of energy brought on by southern-fried and alternative sounding electric guitars, which makes for a reasonable amount of variety while staying true to the core concept.

Jake’s thin and sand-papery voice is complimented in a number of places by his wife, who provides a clean vocal that doubles, harmonizes, or weaves around his parts, with no obvious pitch problems or evidence of auto-tuning from either of them. The vocals are at their best when they are in sync with each other and really blend well at times. His voice seems almost a little more suited for a New Wave or Alternative type of sound, but his heartfelt delivery still manages to compliment the feeling of a more simple time, and occasionally we find the usually mild-mannered vocalist channeling his inner rocker and tearing it up bit. Overall, I was disappointed with the vocal production though, as both the lead and backing vocals seem too thin and small in comparison to the bigger, warmer sound of the acoustic guitar driven arrangements. For this style of music, and particularly where the lyrics are a focal point, I felt that the vocals needed to be brought out of the mix a little more, and deserved a little more production value. This is not to say that the performances weren’t good, only that they weren’t captured and presented as well as I think they could have been. I would have liked to have heard some minor changes in how the drums were mixed also, but really – outside of the vocal production – the rest of the production seems very appropriate for the type of music – with an organic and under-produced sound that works well for the setting. All in all, it’s easy to close your eyes and imagine the sound of a natural, live performance.

The album starts off with a fairly simple, melancholy song, which lulled me into a false perception of what to expect on the album. When the second track, “Henry is Close” came in it did so with a bigger arrangement and a lot of energy, giving me a sonic smack upside the head and leaving me truly interested in what the following tracks would hold. I really enjoyed this track, and found myself hearing a wide range of influences permeating Jake’s playing. I felt that this song was one of the highlights of the album for me personally. Later in the album, Jake takes a break from singing on “California”, an instrumental that starts out softly and then becomes more intense during the midsection, before again closing out with a sweet and simple lullaby type of feel. Despite what I felt were a few small production bumps during the mid-section, I found myself also enjoying this track very much.

The last song “Miles and Miles” ends the album very much as it started – with a scaled back, simple arrangement. Unfortunately, the ending of this song ended up a bit sour for me, due to a production trick that was well-intended but came up a little short and sounded gimmicky – especially considering that the album as a whole was otherwise free from any obvious production “tricks”. I wish that the album hadn’t ended on a weak note, but in a way, it is symbolic for I think how this album will be received… Those who rarely stray outside the “mainstream” with their musical choices will likely find this album falling short. However, if you respect creative vision and originality, and enjoy music with an Americana core, you may find this album & journal combination both interesting and engaging. Jake has successfully blended the simple sounds of tradition with modern melodies and arrangements that should appeal to a diverse group of listeners.

I think it’s a bit presumptuous for me to apply a “rating” to this highly unusual and innovative fictional history and music combo, and would rather just share my thoughts with you and then let you judge for yourself. While there are a few areas admittedly lacking, I found somewhat of a strange attraction to some of the songs as I felt momentarily deported from my hectic modern world and relishing a bit of sweet simplicity. While it won’t replace anything on my ipod “favorites” list, there are certainly a few gems on this album that I enjoyed, and I am intrigued by the whole concept of the album. Based on what I’ve heard, I can certainly say that Jake and his guitar would be welcome at my home, studio, or jam session.

You can find Jake’s music online at http://www.ghostguest.net/

Matt Mylroie is a Florida-based music producer, audio engineer, songwriter and musician who works under the business name of Driftwood Tide Music. He can be reached at matt@driftwoodtidemusic.com  

Don’t watch the video. The video will distract you. The video has white boy dancing and an invisible drummer and horn players. This isn’t the video of the week. It’s the song of the week.

For 2 minutes and 30 seconds in 1972, the Osmonds had an unqualified moment of PURE ROCK BLISS. I don’t care who you are, this song legitimately rocks and has more than enough stomp and wail to hang with the best hard rock/proto-metal of the era. The Osmonds far transcend their “Mormon Jackson 5″ roots and deliver not only one of the greatest rock songs written and performed by Mormons, but one of the greatest rock songs of the 70s period.

Introduction to the world of music videos.

You got your start in music videos from in the Seattle hip hop world. From the outside, it looks like that scene is hitting its stride after slowly building national attention starting in the mid-2000s. At that time, Common Market and Blue Scholars were all over the place. This year, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis topped itunes and Billboard charts and got worldwide attention. What is the atmosphere like in-person?

Seattle is a challenging and beautiful place for artists. Unlike New York and L.A., where there’s a critical mass of full-time entertainers and performing musicians who are funded by record labels, Seattle is filled with independents who take a very different path to bringing their art to audiences. There’s a lot of innovation and experimentation in terms of distribution, funding models, and other business aspects of the music industry, as well as innovation in the music itself.

It’s bizarre that Seattle has such a vibrant hip-hop community, considering our lack of involvement in the rap boom of the 90s (and the fact that Seattle was then branded for our grunge and punk bands), but nobody is complaining. The city mayor shows up at the occasional Blue Scholars, Common Market or Macklemore show, local businesses show all kind of support to the music, and even other genres of music within Seattle are spilling into and out of the hip-hop community. It’s not uncommon to see a folk singer or concert violinist perform a set on stage with an emcee, and live hip-hop bands like Theoretics, Dyno Jamz and The Physics are characterized by a multidisciplinary musical background, both in terms of the music and the lyrical approach. There’s a ton of cross-pollination.

How did you come to be connected to the scene?

Heard Common Market on Pandora during my last year at BYU, got very inspired, THEN found out they were in Seattle. Got to Seattle, volunteered to take photos at a Haiti benefit show right after the earthquake in Haiti, met Ryan Abeo/RA Scion and his wife there, bonded instantly for whatever reason. They came over for dinner, we talked music videos. They took a huge chance on me since I’d never done a music video before. It was the beginning of a still-strong friendship. Ryan’s wife, Mariangela, is also a strong figure in the Seattle underground music world and having her as a friend was helpful. They were happy with the final product and other rappers heard about me as a result. Also interesting: their 15 year old daughter has been in a lot of my videos. She was the queen in Soothsayer, the ballet dancer in Alabaster’s “Overcome,” an extra in Kirby Krackle’s “World Full of Heroes,” et cetera. She’s a ballet dancer. They’re a great family and we still get together whenever possible.

The creative process.

Your music videos tend to feature extensive dance sequences. Do artists come to you if they want to feature dancing in their videos, or is that something that you tend to suggest?

A few musicians have come to me for a specific project because they had dance in mind. I try to be very open about the fact that I’m obsessed with dance (as well as music), and I’ve been trying to work on every major dance/film project I’ve been presented with, but I don’t think that most people know all of that about me. Usually, I just throw it out there like it’s the first time I’ve thought of the idea. “I know! We can feature a few dancers in this music video! We can get a krumper and some poppers and it will fit the theme perfectly!”

I love working with dancers, but I haven’t put dance in every video I’ve made: I do make a point of exercising self-restraint when dance isn’t going to help the video.

How much of your work is making the musician’s artistic vision reality versus selling your ideas to the musician?

There are generally two types of creative genesis behind most of the projects I’ve been involved with: group collaboration and personal vision.
I’m a firm believer in collaboration, and often I’ll just start talking through ideas with the musician and see where it leads. I tend to feel that all ideas should be spoken and considered, even if it seems stupid at the time. As a result there is often a lot of brainstorming and creative resonance during the project development. That environment tends to be very organic, and if the creative relationship is strong between me and the musicians or producers, the sum usually becomes greater than the parts that went into it. In that type of environment it’s hard to say who owns which aspects or which ideas of a project.

In other circumstances, there’s an initial and prevailing creative vision that informs the entire project. In those cases, the musician usually comes to me with a song (or an album, asking me to pick a song), and asks me to come up with something. I listen to the song over and over again, sometimes for weeks, until I can visualize the music video in my head every time I listen to it. Then I do my best to write the vision down and communicate it to the artists. It always shapes and develops and changes during the course of production, but it’s based in a strong initial visual concept (be it a storyline, a world, a lighting style, an editing approach, etc…).

I occasionally also have musicians approach me with their idea and ask them to make it happen. That’s a similar process that’s almost entirely reversed, where I’m trying to translate their mental vision into something that I understand, kind of like transcribing someone else’s dream and then making a movie about it. It’s intimidating and challenging to take on someone else’s vision, but that approach is as important as the reverse situation.

In the case of the music video I directed for Theoretics’ “Jekyll & Hyde,” you can see evidence of both strong creative vision and group collaboration: the first time I heard to song, I had this melodramatic, dark comedy story play in my mind, almost like a 21st-century Tex Avery cartoon. I told Mark Hoy (one of the emcees) that we needed to make a music video for that song, but we weren’t ready for it yet. After months of brainstorming with the band, hearing their ideas and pitching mine, they turned it over to me and I wrote the screenplay which closely resembles the final product.

As an experienced dancer yourself, you’ve been on both sides of the camera. Do you find that you draw on your performing experience as a director?

Absolutely. My performance experience and my directing experience directly feed into each other.

The Bieb.

Is Justin Bieber equally dreamy, somewhat more dreamy, or significantly more dreamy when viewed frame by frame and close up?

In 5k resolution 3D, wearing those annoying glasses for three days straight while editing hours of footage without sleep to make the short deadline for “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” everything was a bit dreamy.

How much Hollywood magic did it take to make it appear that he was actually playing the drums?

Surprisingly, Justin actually is a great drummer! Fun fact: his manager randomly purchased that custom steampunk drum set during filming. I believe that he took it home, but I’m not sure how he got it on the plane.

Another fun fact: Justin actually is also an excellent singer. I expected an auto-tuned teenager and was shocked at his serious vocal chops. That’s all that I’ll say about Justin Bieber.

How did you come to edit his 3D steampunk-pop-and-lock Christmas tune movie?

I doubt that many people see the connection, but that music video was almost entirely produced by the team who made The LXD, a reasonably-high-budget web series created by Jon Chu (director of Step Up 2 and 3), which is kind of a breakdancing X-Men sort of story. I was involved in season three of The LXD and ended up editing an episode for director Charles Oliver (who directed roughly 1/3 of The LXD episodes) to help make the short deadline.

Charles Oliver was later asked to direct the Santa Claus Justin Bieber music video. The turnaround was insanely short (about three days), especially for a 3D music video with a theatrical premiere (it showed in theaters immediately before Arthur Christmas during November and December 2011). Charles called me up and asked if I could be there for filming over the weekend and then edit the video during the first part of the following week. I opted out of being there for filming but flew down to L.A. and barely left the editing chair for 72 hours until it was finished.

It was fun to work again with Charles Oliver, an excellent director, as well as D.P. Alice Brooks and a slew of dancers who had LXD connections. I can’t say that I’m a Bieber fan but it was a good gig with good people.

Production, direction, & editing.

Aside from budget, how do you decide whether to do mini-films with a story line, high production values, props, costumes, extras, etc (a la Theoretics “Jekyll and Hyde”) versus a near straightforward performance (like the Alabaster “Overcome”)?

Since you mentioned those two videos, I should note that they were filmed during the same period. I wanted to make sure they weren’t too similar (since I was in a serious Jekyll & Hyde mindset for a few months there), so part of the feel of “Overcome” is in response to not being a story like “Jekyll & Hyde”. Some songs and topics lend themselves more to a more narrative-based storyline, while others seem to lend themselves more towards the abstract. The third music video I made for Theoretics (“Go”) is entirely abstract and has far less story than Alabaster’s “Overcome” (which actually has a pretty concrete storyline between the dancers, as I’m sure you noticed).

You work in many film genres including your forthcoming full length documentary on Gibraltar. What is your preferred genre? Do you enjoy the wide variety, or would you prefer to make your living in a narrow specialty?

Like many these days, I’m just sort of improvising as I go along, trying to make a living and make a contribution to the community. As a result, I’ve been doing weddings, music videos, TV commercials, documentary film, and all sorts of other projects.

In an ideal world, I’d make feature-length narrative films, with a few music videos on the side. Music videos are a very free, unconstrained medium, and it’s great to take the occasional romp through the creative hinterlands of my bizarre mind and the bizarre minds of musicians I’ve chosen to work with.

Who are your directorial and editorial heroes? Do you ever intentionally crib from them while you plan your work?

I definitely have my unique style and approach, but I borrow heavily from a few key filmmakers, especially in terms of music videos. The Cohen brothers taught me to use wide-angle lenses well. Wes Anderson’s insane level of involvement in his sets, costumes and props is something I admire but can rarely even approximate. In terms of filming and lighting dancers, I borrow heavily from cinematographer Alice Brooks and her use of silhouettes and backlighting. I steal from Naruto (the manga/anime) often when I need ideas for dynamic camera movement. Carlos Saura is probably my top film inspiration, both in terms of his narrative style and his use of dance, and if you look closely at my work you can see a lot that’s borrowed from “Flamenco” (1995) and “Tango” (1998), two of my favorite Carlos Saura films. Jacques Demy’s “Les Demoiselles de Rochefort” (1967) makes its way into almost everything I do, as well.

The purpose of music videos has gone from trying to get on MTV to collecting youtube hits in the last decade. What do you see at the future of music videos?

I have no idea. I’m just glad that it’s not on MTV anymore (though I loved watching MTV for hours on end as a teenager). Web video is an awesome and equalizing force for independent musicians, and the future looks bright.

Spiritual dimensions.

Common Market reminds me of early Common and Tribe Called Quest and other Native Tongues Posse-types in their articulate attempts at consciousnesses-raising. I imagine that this is influenced by their own spiritual paths. Did you ever have a spiritual conversation or experience with an artist you’ve worked with?

Ryan Abeo, also known as RA Scion (the emcee of Common Market), is a very spiritual person, as are his wife and daughter. We’ve had a number of spiritual conversations in relation to making art. Spiritual beliefs are often closely linked to our artistic expression, and I’ve found that it’s common to have spiritually-charged experiences with other artists during the development of a music video or film project. I’m not sure if it’s possible for someone to make sincere art without being spiritually sensitive to a certain degree. I often get to hear about the genesis of a band or an album or a song during the process of making a music video, and that sensitivity and respect for the various sources of artistic inspiration seems to be a very common trait that many musicians hold.

How do your spiritual/religious convictions impact your artistic expression?

My values and beliefs shape the projects I take on and the way I execute them. That said, a director isn’t a dictator, and at the end of the day I don’t have full creative control over anything I direct. Collaboration is filled with compromise. That becomes most obvious when a song has swears that I’d rather it not have, for example, but sometimes the contract is in place before the lyrics are recorded so it becomes tricky. At the end of the day, my goal is to inspire and uplift and bring beauty and understanding into the world, even if it’s just by asking questions or presenting challenging material to my audiences. People have talents, and I see my primary job as helping other people to bring their talents to new and larger audiences.

Check out more of Garrett’s work and follow upcoming projects at his personal site, twitter, and facebook.

 

Linescratchers 2012 Release of the Year:

Jake Workman: The Ghost and the Guest

Honorable mentions:

 The New Electric Sound: The New Electric Sound

Haun’s Mill: Away

Congratulations Jake! Good job, Killers, Imagine Dragons, Haun’s Mill, and New Electric Sound! We’re looking forward to hearing what you and the rest of the linescratchers world accomplishes in 2013. Thanks to all who voted and nominated!

*Nobody else is calling it the Scratchies so I’m giving up on that… for this year.

Morrissey’s admiration for the New York Dolls is well documented (And even well documentary-ated, see the excellent New York Doll for details.) But the bassist for the New York Dolls, Arthur Killer Kane, only became LDS long after the glory days of the New York Dolls, after he was found via door to door tracting by a pair of sister missionaries. And Morrissey loved the NY Dolls as young man, probably influencing his first band, the Smiths, more than his solo career.

But in a new interview with Uncut magazine, Morrissey sheds light on another LDS*  figure who had a direct impact on a vital period of Morrissey’s solo success: Mick Ronson. Mick had already played a key role in history of rock several times, as David Bowie’s guitarist throughout the 70 including on untouchable classics Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory, and Ziggy Stardust and Spiders from Mars. In his spare time, he co-produced Lou Reed’s best solo album, Transformer, played guitar on Bob Dylan’s Hard Rain, and released a series of solo albums. In 1992, Morrissey asked Mick to produce his third solo LP, Your Arsenal.

Here’s Morrissey: “I’d released a slightly pallid LP, Kill Uncle, and I knew that one more similar slip and I’d be rightly hanged on a hook through the tongue. Mick saved me. I’d always pushed the vocal against the structure of the melody, and I didn’t know how long this could work. Mick said “You haven’t even started.” He’d learned all the writing systems, tunings, and chord combinations the best way–by ear, which is usually the secret of great music. But he took me aside one night and said, ‘You realize your drummer can’t actually play?’ and I said, ‘Yes. But it isn’t always a problem.’ Mick could have used this as a stick to beat me with, but his only instinct was to save all of us – drummer included – from the snake pit. There wasn’t a single moment when Mick wasn’t patient and understanding, we all absolutely loved him.”

Not only Bowie’s golden age, not just Reed’s solo masterpiece, but Your Arsenal, the best** Morrissey album, all brought to you by a Mormon.

*Ronson was a private man who was born into the LDS church. His funeral was held in an LDS church. And not much more is known for sure about his level of church activity throughout his life. There are rumors that he was inactive and there are rumors that he was faithful throughout his life.

**Tied with Vauxhall and I, fight me in the comments.

Book on Tape Worm “All the World’s A Stage”
GOGO13 “I Like it!”
Haun’s Mill “Away”
Imagine Dragons “Night Visions”
Jake Workman “The Ghost and the Guest”
Jeff Zentner “A Season Lost”
Jiminy Finn and the Moneydiggers “Campfire Carols”
The Killers “Battle Born”
Low “Plays Nice Places” Digital EP
Murder of Crows “Imperfecta”
Neon Trees “Picture Show”
The New Electric Sound “Self-Titled”
Retribution Gospel Choir “The Revolution” EP

Everybody wants to burn up down the geezer, but nobody wants to see what they have done.

Amazing song, and it also features the best Arnold Friberg musical reference in recent memory (the flowerpot line.)

I was completely entranced by it.

Fine, he considers himself religious but non-denominational (no longer LDS). And fine, this is a cover. And fine, he’s an actor*. But it makes the cut because A. This was a performance at a Mormon ward talent show. B. Gosling’s got the moves C. Gosling’s got the haircut. D. Gosling’s got the pants. Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em.

*He actually does have a band but it’s indulgent celebrity rock band stuff so it can safely be ignored.

I’m pretty sure that Mormon continues to be distinctly uncool, and I’m quite sure that goofy t-shirts aren’t helping. But 2012 was obviously a big year for the church what with the Romneys and the Harry Reids and the Hunstmans and the Imagine Dragons and the Neon Trees and the Manti Teos and Brandon Flowerses and all. Unfortunately, Linescratchers was mostly asleep this year. Help us wake up by nominating your favorite 2012 musical releases featuring one or more LDS person for the Linescratchers 2012 awards. Nominate by replying to this post, posting a comment on facebook, tweeting with hashtag #scratchies2012, or emailing cody@linescratchers.com.

Linescratchers has been sleeping, but low is the band that never sleep and Alan Sparhawk is the shark of the music world. If he stops writing and performing, he dies.

Alan Sparhawk collaborated with violinist Gaelynn Lea in a new band called Murder of Crows. They’re selling a download of their first EP, Imperfecta, for however much you’d like to pay (including $0) here. (Handmade CD version is available here.) Watch their segment on PBS show The Playlist here.

Low has announced that their new album, The Invisible Way, will be released in March (I’m not linking the album trailer because it’s ridiculous, perhaps as a comment on how ridiculous a trailer for an album is as a concept.) Jeff Tweedy from Wilco invited the band to his Chicago studio to record the record and he also took the producer’s helm.

In the meantime, the band has released their second pay-what-you-want digital EP, Plays Nice Places. It’s a collection of live tracks from their recent tour with Death Cab for Cutie. I can never forgive Ben Gibbard for slaughtering This Charming Man*, but it’s interesting to hear him take the vocals for “Words.” Download it using the widget on the right side of the page here.

Low was also featured in an episode of BYUtv’s surprisingly good new series, Audio-Files. Watch the whole 30 minute episode free here.

The Retribution Gospel Choir also remains active and will release their new album, 3, on Chaperone Records this January. “Q: How do you follow-up a four-song 7”? A: With a two-song full-length.” Sounds like they’re going to attempt replicating the live RGC experience this time. I’ve been lucky enough to see them once in DC and once in Santa Cruz, CA. If you haven’t seen them live yet, brace yourself. Prolific jazzy, Wilco-y guitarist Nels Cline joins on one song (half the album?)

*If you want to cover the Smiths, you bring your A game. You do not change the lyrics. Gibbard’s egregious offense:

This man said

“It’s gruesome

that someone so handsome should care.”

to

This man said

“It’s crucial

that someone so handsome should care.”

No, a hundred times no. If there is one word that could ruin that song, he found it.

Check out our new experimental radio station on last.fm* by clicking this sentence. I’m pretty excited by how it has turned out.  For my trial run tonight, these were the first ten tracks:

1.Idiot Glee — Like to Pretend

2. Tyler McKell — Reinvent

3. Calm Paradox — Boots

4. The Happies — If

5. Haun’s Mill — Look Up

6. Neon Trees — Lessons in Love (All Day, All Night)

7. Fictionist — Time to Time (my favorite fictionist song that I’ve heard so far)

8. Cary Judd — Coma

9. Fictionist — Blue-eyed Universe

10**. Bear Cats –This Will

Overall, pretty decent results. You can help make the radio station better by tagging artists on last.fm with the tag linescratcher. In celebration of the radio station actually working, I created a linescratchers group, which you can join here: http://www.last.fm/group/Linescratchers As of this writing, I’m the sole lonely member–come keep me company. Also, check out my profile and add me as a friend here.

*Last.fm is a free web-based music service that works as a tracker for the music you listen to, a social network, a wikipedia-like source for bands and tour dates,  and an automated music recommendation service based on music you’ve listened to. You can also listen to custom radio stations based on parameters that you enter. Users also tag artists, albums, and songs however they wish to create a folksonomy of sorts.

**There was also a Colby Miller song that came up, but it was the wrong Colby Miller so I blocked the song.

Haun’s Mill’s new album came out on September 21. They sent me a copy for review more than two months before that. And I’ve been listening to it regularly in that time, but what with touring (theirs) and illness (mine) and losing things (universal), this darn interview has taken for bleeding ever to get into a final form. But we arrived! And it was worth it!

Because of my ongoing inability to embed videos on Linescratchers, the full version of this interview will appear only on A Motley Vision, but to whet your appetite, here is an excerpt: