Posts Tagged ‘Cameron Stallones’

Sunday Brunch Takeover: The Nonhorse / Sun Araw Episode

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

Last week, “Sunday Brunch with Chocolate Bobka” on Newtown Radio was home to a DJ coup d’état. I wish I could say that the Underwater Visitations team staged a veritable DJ hold-up (in the manner of Horsemouth in the film Rockers, Reggae patois and all), but the reality of the situation had nothing to do with musico-political resistance, and everything to do with scheduling conflicts. Though no omelets or mimosas went into making of this episode, Ari and I had a full plate indeed — so much so that we stretched our two-hour repast into three and a half.

Cameron Stallones of Sun Araw delivered an inspirational virtual DJ set from sunny Los Angeles, aptly entitled “Sunburn City: Heads Up High.” Over Gchat, Cameron described the mix to me as the soundtrack to a “lazer lazy day”: “it starts all dewy, and then it gets mad sunburnt.” I’m not so sure what Sunburn city is, but apparently the photo above — which Cameron provided in the way of visual accompaniment — shows all the people who are waiting in line to get there. I probably should have asked him to tell me a little more about the place when he called into the station from the side of the road — not to mention his thoughts on Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Soviet mystic mathematician PD Ouspensky, whom he seemed intent upon discussion before the show– but we did end up having a pretty fascinating discussion on triangles, hairless dogs, and Hubble 3D.

Just when we were about to pack up for the day, G. Lucas Crane of Silent Barn, Woods, and Nonhorse fame rolled up with his mobile tape-manipulation dashboard and spilled about a hundred hand-labeled tapes onto the floor. Shortly thereafter, he dove into a hour-long mash-up of sounds as widely varied as Indian Raga, a “How to Feel Good Without Drugs” self-hypnosis cassette, and a tape he recorded while watching at home and jamming along to it on a synthesizer. The resulting performance — which you can hear at the tail end of the episode below — was frenetic enough to provoke a small seizure. But like any instance of sensory overload – listening to every FM station on the dial at once, for example — if you let the whole thing wash over you in one long continuous wave, you’ll probably end up feeling pretty blissed-out.

“Sunday Brunch with Chocolate Bobka Takeover: The Nonhorse / Sun Araw Episode”

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Download the entire episode here.

Playlist after the jump.
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VR Vimeo: Sun Araw’s “Deep Cover,” Live at The Smell

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Sun Araw-”Deep Cover”- Live at The Smell- 5/13/2010 from Samantha Cornwell on Vimeo.

Last week, we posted a video I shot at The Smell of Sun Araw performing a live version of “Canopy.” The video that you see here today comes from the same show. I must confess that when they kicked off their set with this rendition of “Deep Cover,” I wasn’t able to immediately identify the song — despite having watched the Cameron Stallones-directed music video several times, and having listened to the album version rather regularly. I think the emphasis on the hypnotic organ track in this live version places it in a different realm from the version we hear on record. Still, the visual cue of the triangular garlands — which are feature prominently in the official music video — let us know that we’re still in the same universe.
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VR Vimeo: Sun Araw, “Boat Trip,” Live at the Smell

Monday, May 17th, 2010

Sun Araw- “Canopy”- Live at The Smell- 5/13/2010 from Samantha Cornwell on Vimeo.

This past Thursday, I headed downtown to The Smell to catch Sun Araw. Following the interview I did with him last month, Cameron Stallones suggested that it might be a good opportunity to shoot a live video. Although I was still slowly recovering from the video extravaganza that was SXSW — OK, very slowly — there was no way that I couldn’t get excited about shooting a video of one of my favorite artists. Shooting at The Smell presented some challenges, mostly having to do with their very minimal lighting set-up. So we decided to provide our own lighting (DIY or die!), with Cameron and his (very recent) bandmate Nick Malkin dipped in the ominous red and green light you are about to see. To me, this clips feels almost like a deleted scene from Dario Argento’s Suspiria. Imagine this: the girls sneak out of the dance school dorms to see their favorite psychedelic rock band. Little do they know that there is a mysterious presence lurking in the shadows…

But there is really no need for fear. Sit back, turn up those speakers, and let this rapturous rendition of “Canopy” (off Sun Araw’s Boat Trip 12″) draw you in. Stay tuned for more videos, and a radio mix by Cameron Stallones on “Underwater Visitations” next Sunday.
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The Sun Araw Zone: An Interview with Cameron Stallones

Friday, April 30th, 2010

I would describe the experience of doing an interview with Cameron Stallones of Sun Araw as both thrilling and nerve-racking. Thrilling in that you’re likely to end up with something really thought-provoking and surprising. Nerve-racking because considering how much care Stallones puts into his output, I knew that I really had to bring my A-game. After several hours of bleeding over questions, several spirited email exchanges, and much anticipation, I am at last able to present to you the interview you see here, along with the track “The Stakeout: Reprise” off of ON PATROL, Sun Araw’s latest album. I don’t know about you, but I think this song could be the soundtrack to the buddy cop movie that exists somewhere in my subconscious.

Samantha Cornwell: I know that you do all of your own album art work for Sun Araw, and seem to have a pretty clear vision of how you want your music to be represented visually. How do you feel this aesthetic unity effects the Sun Araw experience and sets it apart from other musical projects that you are familiar with? Have you applied a similar rigor to previous musical projects of your own?

Cameron Stallones: I want the zones to flow all the way through, start to finish, eyes to ears, brainpan to inner visions. That’s really powerful and important to me. I just can’t help but get stoked about the object-creation side of it anyhow, such a heavy scene! Not to mention the ability to physically realize for others the inner-zones that you’ve been dwelling in so long while recording. Thankfully, in most of the other bands I’ve been in, people have been down and had similar goals. In Magic Lantern the artwork is always a collab, but those dudes like getting down into it, making something really thorough. I guess those are complicated ways of saying I can be super picky, though. But a lot of the bands I idolize are those that were super singular in their aesthetic visions as well as their music. I just see it as preparing the way for the jams, folding them in love.
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Sightings: Sun Araw, “Deep Cover” Video

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

DEEP COVER – SUN ARAW from CatCakes on Vimeo.

I’ve always found the extras in David Lynch’s films to be his most memorable characters of all. You know, the ones who appear for only few seconds — or repeatedly over the course of a film — without any clear-cut narrative reason for being there: the cowboy slipping out of the party at the end of Mulholland Drive, the fireman waving hello to the camera in the opening sequence of Blue Velvet. Most of all, I am thinking of the middle-aged woman in the latter movie dancing Go-Go-style to Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams” on top of a Cadillac, completely oblivious to the “main action” of the scene in which the Kyle McLaughlin is pounded to a pulp.
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