Anyone that reads this site knows how much we love Philly’s phinest (intentional) hardcore bros Paint It Black. The band just released their ferocious third full-length New Lexicon (Jade Tree) last week. I’m not going to really beat around the bush here because in this situation the proof is in the pudding. Just listen to the album and compare it with their other albums and you’ll see what I mean. I’d rather have the band speak for themselves.

I talked with members Dan Yemin, Andy Nelson and Jared Shavelson a few weeks ago, while I was on the clock at work no less, when they were in NYC. For nearly an hour and a half, we talked about the early stages of the record, their recent record release shows in Philadelphia and, of course, their infamous house show down at the Fest VI in Gainesville.

I know there was another title for the album before it came out, “Gravity Wins.” Why did you change it to the New Lexicon? What does it mean?

Andy: That was never the title of the record. It was a working title and someone misunderstood something in an interview that happened while we were making the record.

Dan: I said ‘tentatively titled.’

Andy: One person posts something on one site and it just goes everywhere. Titling songs, records and bands is the most difficult thing.

Dan: It’s such a battle. You’ve spent two years working on this body of stuff that you’ve poured everything into and then you have to choose one to three words to define it.

Read on after the jump for the rest of my interview with Paint It Black.

Continue Reading

For a band that supposedly was on the verge of breaking up at this time last year, Crime In Stereo is doing pretty darn well. In fact, they seem to have undergone a complete 180. The band’s latest …Is Dead has been well received by new and old fans alike, new tours are in the works, and they’ve finally found a label to call home with Bridge Nine. It wasn’t surprising to find Alex Dunne (guitars) and Kristian Halbert (vocals) in very good spirits when Late Night Wallflower got a chance to talk to them after their set at Philly’s First Unitarian Church. No, really. It was at times difficult to transcribe the interview because of all the giggling.

I’m really into the new CD, I’ve been listening to it nonstop since I got it. I noticed it’s pretty different from your older stuff, and I just wanted to go through how that new sound came about, and what made you guys decide to follow that route.

Dunne: Well, there’s really no way to word this properly so I don’t sound like a complete douchebag. But, we love our fans. We love everybody that loves our band, even if they only like the first record or whatever. But anybody that has supported our band in any way, we love you. So let me put that out there.

Halbert: Hallelujah.

Dunne: Aside from that, we all kind of have this opinion like, “Fuck everybody.” And not literally like “Fuck the people who like our band,” you know, we’re very grateful. But as musicians, musically, we have a “fuck you” attitude. We don’t wanna do what people want us to do. We don’t wanna do what people think we’re going to do. Everytime we go to write songs or make a record, it’s really about personal growth. Unfortunately, we can’t take into account the opinions and judgements of every single person that likes our band. It was like “What kind of record can we make?” We thought we really stepped it up on The Troubled Stateside (Nitro), we thought that was some next-level shit. And thats where we were at, and it was time to do some more next-level shit.

Keep reading for more of Leah’s interview with Crime In Stereo after the jump.

Continue Reading

I had a chance to talk with Brooklyn-based illustrator and designer Steak Mtn., AKA Christopher Norris. Over the years, he has made a name for himself through projects with bands, including The Draft, Atom & His Package, and Fake Problems. You’ve probably, however, seen most of his designs through Against Me!. Chris has built a creative relationship with the band that includes doing artwork for 7-inchs, tour posters and most recently, The New Wave Collection, a line of t-shirts that represents every song on the band’s most recent album New Wave.We chatted about drawing and design, how his relationship with Against Me! began and what he has lined up for Steak Mtn.

Why did you move to New York from Florida five years ago?
Chris: I came here with a girl I was dating. She wanted to go to school. Right about that time, I started taking what I was doing a little more seriously. I didn’t have a college education. I was just in crummy bands and toured and I ended up laying out and drawing pictures for records. You’re not really world-weary until you get into a big city and see that you aren’t the only kid that draws pictures.

Read more of my interview with Steak Mtn. after the jump!

Continue Reading

 

About a month and change ago, I had a chance to sit down with Chris McCaughan of Sundowner and The Lawrence Arms.

Let me preface this by saying that this was most the most drunk I’ve ever been during an interview. I wasn’t like face down on the table but things were a little looney tunes. In fact, I was afraid to listen to the tape for so long because I figured I made a complete ass of myself. Two dollar PBRs will do that to you. After getting over my cowardice, I realized I had some decent stuff on this tape. It was mostly me and Chris rambling about music and life, not that different from any other bar room conversation.

Chris had just played a show with Chuck Ragan at NYC’s Knitting Factory and he was winding down his 2007 touring schedule at this point. Although he admitted he was exhausted going into it, the show was incredible and it was obvious that he was pretty speechless because of the whole experience.

It’s been a huge year for you. You had the solo thing really take off it seems.
Chris: I’ve been fortunate and lucky to go out and play shows by myself. It’s a small record and that’s fine but I just got some cool opportunities.

You went into this thing as it being your own thing. Separate from the Lawrence Arms and all that. Has it come to a point where you think you can do this by yourself?
Chris: I started this initially just doing some acoustic shows around Chicago. I played some of the songs that I had that weren’t Lawrence Arms songs, but I played a bunch of Lawrence Arms songs also. I talked to Toby from Red Scare and he was like ‘man, if you make a record, I’ll put it out.’ I needed a kick in the ass to be like ‘hey, I’m actually going to finish this record. I’m going to write these songs.’ I had no necessary aspirations about where it would go. I always wanted to make an acoustic record. It’s a whole different experience playing by yourself on stage. It’s cool when I have Neil [Hennessy. Drummer, also in The Lawrence Arms], Eli [Caterer. Guitarist] and Jenny [Choi. Cello and keys] playing with me because it feels like a band. I don’t feel quite as exposed. It’s different than anything I’ve ever experienced honesty.

Read more with Chris after the jump!

Continue Reading

Raw, dirty, straight-up. A shot of vodka or Kissy Kamikaze? Who knows. Either way, this New York punk band, including scene veterans Andy Shaw (formerly of INDK, Morning Glory) and Tibbie X (formerly of the X-Possibles), are ready to kick ass and not even bother with taking names afterwords. That’s cause names are for suckers.

The band were recently nice enough to take some time and answer my annoying fanboy questions about punk rock in NY.

So when and how did Kissy Kamikaze come together?

Tibbie X : I took some time off after X-Possibles broke up and then decided ‘ok, I gotta have an awesome band again.’ Posted on Craigslist. Suzy posted something about looking for a female singer and I was looking for female punk guitarist. Carrie is the only non-suckass female drummer I know in NYC so I Internet stalked her. Andy was a gift from Carrie.
Suzy: I realized I knew Tibbie, or at least knew of her ‘cause our old bands played a show together once.’ So it was less of a strangers hooking up thing.

 Read more of the interview after the jump.

Continue Reading