Rubin Recommends

(Part of The Weekly Check In series)

I’ve always tried to keep up with Tim Kinsella, which could be impossible. From being in the bands Cap’n Jazz, Joan Of Arc, Owls, Make Believe, some solo records, (to ones I might not even know about,) but I think I’ve somehow manage to get it all.

So here’s a quick check in with him, the last check in of 2008, and I am glad I get to close out the year with this one.

RR: What are you currently working on or just finished that you’re excited about?

Kinsella: I just finished my first semester of Grad schoo. I’m in the writing department at the Art Institute of Chicago and besides just the general life warping being in schoo at all gives one after 11 years away, it’s great to go downtown every morning with all the business-people on the train and there’s this incredible cafeteria at schoo on the 14th floor of this building overlooking the parks and the lake.

And obviously art schoo is full of smart weirdos so it’s inspiring every day just to be around people absorbed in being creative and there’s all these specialists in their various disciplines and there’s a lot of overlap. So it’s great and I’ve been writing a ton of different things, most of which are in development phases of things I wouldn’t want to jinx by addressing specifically.

But in the realm of the partially realized, my beautiful super-genius girlfriend and I made a short film together I’m excited about and some folks are turning a screenplay I wrote a couple years ago into a multi-media opera of sorts, so I’m working on revisions of that. It’s called ‘Let Go and Go On and On’ it’s a biography of an actress Lauri Bird. I did a zine I’m excited about with my friend Karissa called Critical Hope. I’m excited about it - it’s photocopied and we’re handing them off to people we bump into.

RR: Where have you traveled so far this month?

Kinsella: I’m through for now with leaving Chicago. Staying put has been a wonderful and fertile indulgence after a long time of a lot of drifting about.

RR: What’s your favorite music right now?

Kinsella: Oh man, do you know the Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices? I’ve been listening to that. I got obsessed with John Frusciante’s Brown Bunny soundtrack, listened to it a few times a day for a month or so, all the while in shock that I grew up to be a fan of one of the Chili Peppers’ guy’s solo albums?! I really like these few Bogdan Raczynski songs from I think the album is called ‘My Love I Love.’ And years later, I still listen to Under Pressure and Eminence Front a few times a day each - 2 best songs ever!

RR: Best food you’ve had in your neighborhood lately or while you were traveling?

Kinsella: I have a new sweet tooth! Very strange development after 34 savory paletted years. I prefer to live on kale and grapefruits, but occasionally condescend to Sultan’s Market spinach pies or Irazu veggie plates. Classics for Chicagoans, no great insight from me.

RR: Anything Else You Want To Mention?

Kinsella: Nope. Thanks for asking! This is a photo of me with two of the men I was named after - Kasher and Rutili.

(Part of The Weekly Check In series)

I met Matt while living in Los Angeles. Matt plays bass for a living, which is pretty amazing. Right now he’s playing bass in the band Angels and Airwaves. I love him.

RR: What are you currently working on or just finished that you’re excited about?

Wachter: I’m currently working on cooking without looking at recipes.  It’s a scary thing not measuring things out before you throw them in the pot.  What does that say about my personality?  Wait…you’re asking the questions here.

RR: Where have you traveled so far this month?

Wachter: My band has been home for about a month, but we leave on Thursday for Southeast Asia…Singapore to Jakarta to Bali to Hawaii.

RR: What’s your favorite music right now?

Wachter: The new Sleepercar album is excellent.  I’ve also been listening a lot of old Iron Maiden and Metallica trying to perfect the art of the 3 fingered bass gallop.  It’s going swimmingly.

RR: Best food you’ve had in your neighborhood lately or while you were traveling?

Wachter: Its a toss up…Senor Fish (mexican) in Eagle Rock and Tropicalia (brazilian) in Los Feliz….I could eat at either, every day for the rest of my life.

RR: Anything Else You Want To Mention?

Wachter: Libby, my lovely wife, and I are having a baby in May!  Ok, technically she’s having it.  That’s one of our pet peeves….when people say “WE’RE PREGNANT!”  No you’re not dipshits.  Only one of you are.  We’re naming it Matt Rubin…boy or girl.

(Part of The Weekly Check In series)

photo by: Emmett Shine

I found out about Norman in 1997 when my friend Brett let me borrow a few copies of the zine Anti-Matter (that I kept,) then I got into the band Texas Is The Reason (that he played guitar in,) and he released one of the most amazing comps of that time, The Anti-Matter comp that was made up of bands that he’d covered in his zine. That comp is a mix tape of everything I liked when it came out. It was life changing. (Thanks to Curtis for connecting us.)

Keep up with Norman on his blog http://nervousacid.org, Purchase the Anti-Matter Anthology book, and check out the Anti-Matter comp CD.

RR: What are you currently working on or just finished that you’re excited about?

Brannon: I’ve sort of ducked out of public life for a second to go back to school. I’m a 34-year-old full-time college student right now, studying Writing & Literature with a concentration in Secondary Education. The idea is that I want to become an English teacher, obviously, so I’m definitely anxious to finish my degree and get on with it.

Making music is more of a personal endeavor at this point, but I’m pretty excited by the recent direction of Zodiac Social. The last few tracks I finished have really set the tone for what I hope will become a full-length album. Also, I just took a brief sabbatical from blogging after driving myself crazy posting about the election, but I used the time to prune and redesign Nervous Acid. The break gave me a chance to figure out how I would make it more of a personal statement and less of a pop culture catch-all. I’m going to try to roll that all out this week.

RR: Where have you traveled so far this month?

Brannon: My boyfriend and I took a hike in upstate New York a couple of weeks ago, on Sugarloaf Hill, which is somewhere between the Hudson River and absolutely nowhere. There is one stretch of the hike that is kind of ridiculous — like, it feels like you are walking up a wall. I was struggling a little bit and we saw this family coming down from the peak with a 7-year-old girl and boy who had to be 4. I turned to John with this face, like, “There must be a fucking elevator somewhere. There is no way they did this.” So anyway, the little girl waits for me to climb by and then she stops me and says, “Don’t worry! The view is worth it!” I must have just scowled at her. But it was pretty awesome at the top.

RR: What’s your favorite music right now?

Brannon: I’ve been spending a lot of time with the Notwist. I saw them play a few weeks ago and it was the first time I’ve been so excited about a show in years. I also recently discovered this guy in London named James Yuill, who makes this really unique kind of pop-techno. The only way I can explain it is that if you took out the electronic elements, it would still be a solid folk record, and if you took out the guitar and vocal, it would still be a solid techno record. I can’t think of anyone else who can really pull that off. There’s been a lot of Lowgold, Radio Slave, and Carl Craig in the mix, too.

RR: Best food you’ve had in your neighborhood lately or while you were traveling?

Brannon: Local is a relative term in New York City, so I will say I had a pretty awesome vegetable risotto at La Nacional on 14th Street the other night. But my favorite restaurant in New York is Vatan, hands down. It’s the best Indian food I’ve ever had, and I’ve probably spent at least 6 or 7 months of my life living in India. They shut down for, like, a year to renovate, and I thought I was gonna have a heartattack.

RR: Anything Else You Want To Mention?

Brannon: Yeah. Four years ago I got hit by a tow truck while crossing the street, and I almost died. I was in the hospital for, like, two months. And I got literally hundreds of get-well cards and letters from well-wishers who appreciated something I did in the past 15 years. Maybe I was in a vulnerable state, but I got really choked up by it — just looking at those boxes of mail by my hospital bed. Anyway, it would have been impossible to write everyone back and I never managed to put out there, somewhere in the ether, that all those letters really helped me through it. So I wanted to put it out there now, better late than never.

(Part of The Weekly Check In series)

I met Deth P Sun through my girlfriend and over the years I’ve really only hung out with him at art shows, food (Del Taco or Pizza,) or board games. I’m lucky enough to own an amazing piece of art he made that is now hanging on my wall. Oh, he also helped me finish my Silver Jews collection, which is amazing.

View his work on his website, life on Flickr, and things he has for sale at LPP.

RR: What are you currently working on or just finished that you’re excited about?

Sun: I’m working on a book that’s basically a reproduction of my sketchbook. That should come out in a few months. Uh, yeah. That’s kind of it for what I’m really excited about. I’m trying to learn how to cook. I’m doing it pretty badly. All I know how to cook so far in Corned Beef and Cabbage, Scrambled Eggs, Hard Boiled Eggs, uh, a Sandwich, and Pork Chops.

RR: Where have you traveled so far this month?

Sun: Well, I went to LA to drop off somethings. I don’t know if you could call that traveling. I got sick right before I got there so I ended up just wanting to do nothing. I watching “The Great Muppet Caper” with my friend Carolline and I got to briefly see some good people down there.

In the summer Marci and I went on a big East Coast trip. We were in New York for a few days, then we went to Providence and stayed at a friend’s place. We really like Rhode Island, for a lot good reasons, mostly the food and the funny accents. We also made our way to the Edward Gorey House on Cape Cod. He lived in this town called Yarmouth Port and we were there without a car and we somehow still had a lot of fun just wandering around town. We just hung out at the cemetery, Marci swam in a real East Coast pond, and we ate at the restaurant Edward Gorey ate out at at least twice a day. We got a book called “Haunted Yarmouth” and read up on all the houses that we walked passed (every house was haunted and they all involved New England sea captains). We also stayed in a kind of shabby B&B, but it was pretty cool in a weird way. It was the most haunted structure in all of Yarmouth. We stayed in the Carriage House where one of the stable boys hung himself back in the day.

RR: What’s your favorite music right now?

Sun: Uh, Doug Martsch and Stephin Merritt. Always and Forever.

RR: Best food you’ve had in your neighborhood lately or while you were traveling?

Sun: Yesterday I had a pulled BBQ pork sandwich at Rudy’s in Emeryville. It was pretty good. Actually the best meal I had in a while were these pork chops I picked up at Trader Joe’s. Marci sent me out to go grocery shopping and I brought back these $8 pork chops. She got really mad, cause I guess that’s a lot of money for just two pork chops. But then we fried them, and ate them with potato fritz and apple sauce, and it ended up being a really good meal. The best meal while travel was probably at Flo’s Clam Shack in Middletown, RI. Uh, I got a lobster hot dog there, and ate some chowder, and there weird clam things I don’t really know what they are.

RR: Anything Else You Want To Mention?

Sun: No. Not really. I’m trying to sucker someone to play Risk with me. I don’t really care if I lose, I just want to finish a game. Every time I play with someone they always give up or don’t want to play after 3 hours. I just need the satisfaction of completing something. I offered a neighbor a burrito to play Risk with me. He says he’s coming over in two Mondays. We’ll see.

(Part of The Weekly Check In series)

I met Ezra because he was running Slowdance Records and I was a fan. He put out some really great stuff on that label. He lives in Portland, OR, haven’t seen him since SXSW 2 years ago, and that’s no good.

You can keep up with him on the blog for The Portland Mercury called End Hits. He’s the music editor for the Mercury, It’s great. Also check out Slowdance Records. It really was a great label.

RR: What are you currently working on or just finished that you’re excited about?

Caraeff: I’m slowly putting the record label, Slowdance, into the ground. After a decade of losing money I decided that there are better ways to go broke that still include the same recklessness as running a small indie label—these include heroin habit, betting on horse (or dog) races, or possibly a combination of the two. Other than that, I’m still exciting for the day job, being married, living in Portland, and watching Blazers games from press row.

RR: Where have you traveled so far this month?

Caraeff: Not too much traveling, although I am headed to the Willamette Valley for some wine tasting this weekend, where I am told there will also be some horse back riding. I look forward to being drunk on a horse. In a few weeks I am traveling to LA to see Van Morrison do an Astral Weeks concert at Hollywood Bowl. I’m going with my father, which means a lot to me since he was the one to get me into his music way back when.

RR: What’s your favorite music right now?

Caraeff: The conflict of interest pony says I can’t rave about the new Jealous Sound EP (it’s finally on iTunes!) since I once toured with them, but fuck it—it’s amazing. I’m also recently basking in the glory that is the new Janelle Monae EP, plus the latest records from Passion Pit, Felice Brothers, Astronautalis, and Gaslight Anthem are all quite nice.

RR: Best food you’ve had in your neighborhood lately or while you were traveling?

Caraeff: Dalos! It’s a quaint little Ethiopian joint around the corner from my house that we eat at about 1-2 times a week. We’ve been going there for years and watched them go from a tiny closest-sized place, to their larger current location. Their vegetarian platter is comically inexpensive and manages to easily feed a pair of hungry eaters. Plus, they serve Harar, which is my favorite Ethiopian beer on the planet.

RR: Anything Else You Want To Mention?

Caraeff: I’m anxiously awaiting election day and am optimistic that Obama will runaway with it. I’m also deeply fearful that he will lose somehow, and I will be emailing you as a Canadian citizen a few months from now. Don’t force me to take up curling, round bacon, and the Tragically Hip. Vote Obama.