When I first heard San Francisco’s Nodzzz, they immediately stood out and struck me as more bookishly eccentric than a lot of music flagged as “garage rock.” Carefully crafted pop songs that seem to reject some of the more chaotic impulses of genre. Aesthetically, the guitars are thin, the vocals crisp and the end result is a deliberate musical cadence that is completely engaging lyrically and sonically. Their vocals don’t swim in amorphous reverb, allowing the meditative lyrics to shine through. Nodzzz has carved out a space for themselves that’s completely fresh.

With Innings, songs like “Always Make Your Bed,” “Fear Of Advice,” “Spirit & Soul” propose an astute philosophical musing and explore it in under 2 minutes. These tracks represent a song-writing style rooted in brevity that Nodzzz pulls off purposefully and earnestly. After exchanging words with Anthony Atlas of Nodzzz, my suspicion of thoughtful, pensive musicians behind these compositions was confirmed.

I feel like you capture a spirit that I saw in a lot of 90s punk. It’s a subtly that comes across in your lyrics but also sonically. Although you guys don’t necessarily sound like these bands, I get a sense of you guys being closer to Man or Astro-Man?, Supernova, or Devo than a lot of contemporary bands that get labeled as “garage rock.” When you originally formed, did you have an intention on what you wanted to sound like and what did you music did you listen to growing up?
There was no overt stylistic intention when we started. At the time I thought we were all over the map though. Our first drummer was skilled at playing ANY style. Sean and I could have Devo-style percussion fit otherwise straight sounding punk songs, for example, so we were able to twist around the the “garage rock” tag fairly easily. I grew up listening to mostly punk and hardcore. Then a Velvet Underground-obsession at 15.

I’ve read that as a band you’ve collectively spent time in New Jersey, Washington, and California and your drummer, Pete, has just got back from the Peace Corps in Bulgaria. Do you feel like any specific location has influenced you musically?
Olympia is where I first starting writing my own songs and playing music with Sean. New Jersey is where me and Pete grew up and played in bands together since 6th grade. The influence then seems more social than musical. Personally though, those places, except Bulgaria, have figured immensely for me.

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Photo by Bill Shouldis

2010 has been a quite a tough year for New Brunswick, NJ’s Screaming Females. Yes, you can say that about probably thousands of bands sweating it out in vans across the globe but their problems have defined their year. 2009 was filled with promise with the band playing on huge stages with Dinosaur Jr. and The Dead Weather and a critically acclaimed full-length, Power Move, in tow. 2010 has been more of a trial. It’s been a year defined by recording studio mishaps, endless touring, and one absolutely horrendous van incident that resulted in a busted fuel pump and mountains of debt.

They channeled their angst and frustration into their latest LP, Castle Talk (Don Giovanni Records), their best record yet.

Will 2011 be a better year for the band? That remains to be seen but all the issues have not dampened the band’s desire to keep making music together.

Drummer Jarrett Dougherty and vocalist / guitarist Marissa Paternoster talked about the past year while they were out on the road with Ted Leo & The Pharmacists in October.

Where are you guys right now?
Jarrett: We’re headed to Charlottesville, VA. We played Greenville, SC last night.

What are you guys driving these days since the infamous van mishap?
Jarrett: We got a new van. It’s a 2008 Ford E-250. We put pretty much all the money we saved as a band, plus extra money that we borrowed, into buying it. It took all the money that we made from that tour to get us home from it. We had to borrow a little money to buy the new van. So, we’re paying people back currently [laughs].

Most bands would have a hard time pushing forward after an ordeal like that. Do you feel that the whole situation made you stronger as a band?
Jarrett: Either we’re going to come out of it being like, “2010 made us a strong band” or we’re going to come out of it completely worn out and crazy. 2010 has definitely been a year of working, problems, and unforeseen issues. In December, I’ll be able to look back at it and have some perspective on it. As far as the van incident goes, it’s funny because it’s already starting to become the thing where I can’t really relate to how awful I felt while I was there. It lasted for a quite a long time. Usually you have a shitty day and the next day you feel a little better. Marissa and I both had some sort of mild post-traumatic stress thing going on where we were sure everything was going wrong in every moment of our life for a couple weeks after that whole thing happened.

Read more after the jump.

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Photo by Todd Fixler

After endlessly touring through the 90s, releasing seven records, and going through the major label ringer, Samiam have become elder statesmen of the punk scene. The band’s story is similar to many bands from their era (see: Jawbox, Seaweed), but with less bands signing to majors these days, they have influenced a younger generation of musicians and may have helped paved the way for the current indie label dominance.

The band kinda-sorta broke up in 2000 but returned a few years later, playing shows, when they felt like it, in the States and abroad. They released Whatever’s Got You Down, in 2006 on Hopeless Records. Most recently, they released Orphan Works, a compilation of b-sides and outtakes from 1994-1998, on No Idea Records.

The band will be playing their first NYC show in a decade on October 13 at Music Hall of Williamsburg. The show is a gathering of old friends (with openers The Casting Out, i hate our freedom, and Vs. Antelope – all new bands with impressive resumes).

I had a chance to talk with guitarist Sergie Loobkoff about the glory days, having fun again on the road and the joy of working at your own pace.

How did Orphan Works come together?
It wasn’t our idea. We played at The Fest in Gainesville. We had a really cool show [but] it was a total disaster because our bass player didn’t come so we had to teach Derron Nuhfer (Less Than Jake) and Chad Darby (Chris Wollard & The Ship Thieves) how to play Samiam songs five hours before we went and played in front of a couple thousand people. It turned out well but I didn’t really have that much fun because it was so crazy. They both did a fantastic job. I could never learn that many songs in a few hours. Regardless, after the show, I reconnected with Var [Thelin], who owns No Idea Records, who I met on our first tour back in the 1800s. We sort of kept in touch a little bit. We put out a 7-inch when No Idea was actually a fanzine and not a label. They put out 7-inches every once in a while and we did a split with Jawbreaker. For the last fourteen years or so, every once in a while, I’d be in Europe and see some graffiti on the wall. He’d be on tour with some band like Small Brown Bike and he’d notice that we were playing three weeks later and he’d write like,” Hey Sergie, what’s happening?” When we played the Fest and I saw him, it was like, “we totally know each other but we haven’t been face to face in fifteen years.” But we talked that night and the next couple days about maybe recording a record. Which is kind of a big, hard ordeal with Samiam because we’re such a ragtag group of assholes. The more realistic thing was to put out our two 90s records that were on major labels, that were out of print for the last decade or so. We hired a lawyer to deal with that. We were talking and since [the idea of] making a new album fizzled a little bit and it’s obviously going to take a long time to deal with a major label to try and weasel your records back, [No Idea thought] “why don’t we put something out in the interim.” It was actually just my idea just to do outtakes and live things. There’s two songs from Clumsy that we recorded then but they never came out. I thought it would be kind of cool to limit the songs to songs from that era of Clumsy and You Are Freaking Me Out. When those [reissues] eventually came out, it would be a trio of records that documents that little time in history. It’s not going to sell a million copies. It’s not like “let’s try to squeeze some cash out of some dorks that buy everything.”

Read more after the jump.

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These days, it takes a lot for me to be impressed musically. Rarely does a new band come along that gets me truly excited, but thankfully, Baltimore’s Pianos Become The Teeth found their way to my ears recently and I’ve been hooked ever since. Mike (guitar) and Kyle (vocals) from Pianos were kind enough to let me pick their brains via email this week, which you can check out below. If you’re not yet familiar with these guys, PLEASE do yourself a favor: give them a listen HERE and then pick up their newest full length Old Pride. RIYL: Envy, City of Caterpillar, Modern Life is War and rad music.

First off, congrats on the Topshelf Records signing! Can you elaborate on the specifics (what release(s) are planned, how the relationship came to fruition, etc.)?

Mike: Thank you so much Aaron! We originally heard about Topshelf from our friends in My Heart to Joy, and simply contacted the label about our album. They seemed really enthusiastic and intrigued about everything. After numerous emails and conversations, plus some friends putting in some good words about us, they said they would like to release Old Pride early in 2010. They have been more than awesome to us, and we are really excited about working with them.

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Record Store Day ’09 is just around the corner (April 18th to be exact) and surely you are making your list and checking it twice of all the special records you want to pick up that day. But all involved with RSD and the indie stores of the world want you to see the greater significance of the celebration rather than just stopping by your local indie retailer and picking up limited edition vinyl. Through struggle and success, RSD is meant to be a toast to this continuing battle. Slainte dudes!

We got some insight from Eric Levin, founder of AIMS (the Association of Independent Media Stores) and owner of Atlanta’s Criminal Records regarding RSD and why indie stores remain so important to the music industry and retail.

Have you noticed an increase of participating stores this year? It seemed like the mainstream media gave the day a lot of attention last year.
Eric: Yeah, we definitely have more stores this year. Last year, some stores took a cynical, wait-and-see approach and ended up having a phenomenal day. Of course, most stores seized the opportunity last year. Mainstream media has been a little stand-offish this year, as expected. I mean, it doesn’t really fit into their negative editorial view, right? Good news doesn’t sell papers.

What were some of your favorite moments from last year and is there anything you are really looking forward to this year?
E: My own record store day celebration was outstanding, I had so much fun. (Not to mention that it was our single biggest sales day, that was cool.) We just threw a hell of a party. I liked dee-jaying before Janlle Monae, I don’t get to do that often.

Read more after the jump.

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