Interview: Freddy Ruppert of Former Ghosts
08 Oct 2009, Posted by Andrew Hibbard in Playground, interview, 2 Comments
Freddy Ruppert (This Song Is A Mess But So Am I), begrudging Durham transplant Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu) and Nika Roza (Zola Jesus). There’s a supergroup. Former Ghosts will be coming to the Duke Coffeehouse tomorrow in support of their excellent debut album Fleurs, out Oct. 20 on Upset the Rhythm. I talked to Freddy Ruppert about his new project as he was heading to Phoenix for the first official show of the tour.
How did you all come together to form Former Ghosts?
Me and Jamie had always talked about doing a synth pop-inspired project. Both our schedules were always so busy that we weren’t able to get together until recently. So, it’s something we’ve always wanted to work on together and always wanted to do. As far as Nika’s involvement in the band, I’m insanely in love with her voice. Like, I’m a big fan of the project she does–it’s called Zola Jesus. I just originally wrote her to sing on a song because I like her voice a lot. She sent the song back, and I was just completely blown away. And I just asked her if she could join the band because I’d be bummed if I didn’t get to work with her ever again because her voice is so great. That’s kind of how we all came together.
Former Ghosts is a pretty drastic departure from This Song Is A Mess But So Am I, so how did you approach this record?
This Song Is A Mess kind of ran its course for me, and I couldn’t see myself doing that anymore. It got to a point where I felt like I was just dwelling on my mom’s death instead of it being a kind of cathartic thing anymore. I needed to move on from that. I kind of just put music completely aside and wasn’t doing any kind of music. Former Ghosts kind of started with falling in love with someone and writing songs for them, and then it kind of evolved into this project. As far as the sound and stuff, I’ve always been kind of interested in music that follows a pop structure. I wanted to do something that was more in a pop vein, but still had influence from a lot of early ’80s pop bands like on 4AD–things like that kind of inspired the project.
(more…)
Review: Mission of Burma’s The Sound The Speed The Light
06 Oct 2009, Posted by Andrew Hibbard in Playground, Review, 0 Comments
In a lot of ways, Mission of Burma’s latest LP reminds me of Superchunk’s Leaves in the Gutter EP, released earlier this year. Although the Chapel Hill indie rock band has never seen an album reach quite the level of critical acclaim as the Boston band (and comparing Superchunk to a Matador release is mildly heretical), both bands are are storied. And on their third post-reunion album, Burma is doing exactly what Superchunk did earlier this year: churning out classic tracks and reminding us why we ever liked them in the first place.
To be fair to both bands, neither was quite “churning out” tracks. But neither album charts new territory. And that’s totally fine. After all, why would we care about a post-punk band 30 years after their formation if they never gave us a reason to care in the first place?
(more…)
Links: Ivy Plus Club, Guglhupf and More
05 Oct 2009, Posted by Andrew Hibbard in Culture, Durham, Playground, 0 Comments
Duke
- If the NYT’s Ivy Plus story wasn’t enough for you, Daily Intel weighed in on the absurdity I cannot wait to attend. Their conclusion on plus-member Duke? “Love those kids from Duke. Not too bright, but so entertaining. Like little fun monkeys.”
Durham
- BCR reports that Guglhupf will be offering its excellent “upscale comfort food with a German twist” at dinner starting Tuesday.
- The Durham blog also reports that a new bar/nightclub called The Republic is rumored to be coming to downtown Durham’s Five Points area.
Less local
- Jacob Ganz wrote a great post for the All Songs Considered blog about Pitchfork’s list of the top albums of the naughts. It’s one of the more thoughtful pieces about the ever irksome if not controversial music “taste maker,” highlighting the evolution of the Web site’s tastes.
(Image courtesy guglhupf.com/cafe)
Duke Film Faculty at the New York Film Festival
04 Oct 2009, Posted by Charlie McSpadden in Playground, 0 Comments
The New York Film Festival selected films made by Spring 2010 Visiting Filmmaker David Gatten and Production Teaching Fellow Shambhavi Kaul for the 13th Annual Views from the Avant-Garde. Gatten’s “Journal and Remarks” and Kaul’s “Scene 32″ screened in front of a packed audience in the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center this past Saturday.
After the screening, the two filmmakers took a moment to talk about their work.