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. (more…)
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. (more…)
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. (more…)
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. (more…)
SXSW 2010 was as blissed-out an exercise in excess as an exercise in excess can be. All in all, the Visitation Rites mobile reporting team (videographer Samantha Cornwell and I) probably caught more sun, saw more live bands, walked more miles, ate more tacos, drank more beer, laughed more, bickered more, took more photos, tweeted more tweets, shot more video, and reunited with more old friends than in all of 2009 combined. After five consecutive days of non-stop partying and documenting, however, we couldn’t help feeling a bit crestfallen when we realized that SXSW wouldn’t last forever. (more…)
Episode #8 of of Arthur Radio definitely makes Visitation Rites’ universal internet heart sing. Ivy Meadows and Harry Painter shower you in an ecstatic medley of psychedelic dirges from all four corners of the planet. Special guest Robert Damore (aka Bobby Bouzouki) whispers some bittersweet nothings on his Bouzouki, and even takes the time to recount some of the narratives behind the rebetika (Greek folk songs) he plucks. Visitation Rites concludes the voyage with an ode to the past, present, and future of drone.
A tentative listening guide, straight from mobile writing desk of DJ Harry Painter:
“The sun is here and opens the curtains slowly! It brings the slow glowing dust! It springs the earth out of polar jail, the winds blow the desert sand to make for better traction. If you sit, it will make your hair look sexier! The tectonic plates are shifting all around us, their quakes make the planet spin faster, and change the pitch! If you jump, you can land in buttes, the plateaus, or the Isle of Cyros! Through our earth’s muzak, the winds blow Bobby Bouzouki up to the Arthur radio treehouse for a jaunt upon rebetika mountain. Happy trials!”
“Arthur Radio Voyage #8: The Bobby Bouzouki Episode”
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