Interview & Preview: TV Torso @ Beerland [Thursday]
Thursday, February 11
Beerland (711-1/2 Red River)
9 p.m. | Free
[info]
The Rumble began in 2007 and currently takes place in a number of cities across the U.S., including San Francisco, Brooklyn, Seattle, Portland, L.A., and Las Vegas. Although a good chunk of any given Rumble is devoted to local musicians, DJs, businesses, and bloggers, all joining together to represent their city, touring artists are occasionally a part of the mix as well. These visiting bands are encouraged to develop connections and contacts in the city’s media outlets during each stop.
On Thursday though, the entertainment on offer at Beerland is all local -- enjoy agreeable blues-pop from The Happen-Ins, brooding post-punk from Dirty Dancing, and stirring indie-rock from TV Torso. The WOXY DJs will also be on hand, spinning choice tunes, no doubt. Matt Oliver from TV Torso was kind enough to answer some questions for us over email earlier this week, complete with a plethora of guiding Gmail emoticons, which, according to him, “pretty much say anything way better than I ever could.”
What became of Minotaur? Is TV Torso essentially the same band with a different name, or were there any line-up changes? When exactly did TV Torso form?
Same band. TV Torso was probably the first name we had. Then we played some shows under a bunch of different names initially, the Minotaur (or Minotaurs?--can't remember) was just one of them. It changed every five minutes. Jared Van Fleet was playing piano with us but then he moved away. After a while it was getting ridiculous and all the least offensive names were taken so we just stayed with TV Torso, we like that one.
Jordan (Johns) and I have been in a band together for a long time, for years; Austin (Leonard Jones) and Jordan have played music together since junior high so it's kind of hard to pinpoint. This one seems to have formed when we all started recording together in 2008.
Emoticon:
TV Torso released two 7-inches last year, both around the same time -- any specific reasons for that format, instead of maybe one EP with four songs? Is there a full-length in the works?
Wish we'd thought of that EP idea, that's a good one man! Do you manage bands? We were going to release the 7-inches separately but the mastering guy took months longer then he was supposed to and we just had to get them out on the same day. He still has our masters, Paul Gold if you are reading this send back our reel of tape please. I have emailed and called and called and called, are you still alive?
We have many, many songs we've recorded, they are sitting on a shelf in tape boxes while we are trying to figure out the logistics of getting the right sequence mixed, mastered and then how to get them out into the world.
Emoticon is definitely a:
We have a studio, Big Orange. It's is essentially a 100-year-old barn with a tape machine inside. I record bands there too, the live room definitely has "a sound" to it. I also do a lot of live-to-2-track stuff there for a music website.
I feel very lucky to have gotten to watch and work closely with some great old-school engineers and producers. When we cut our songs it works better for us to have someone else engineering so I don't have to obsess as much over technical stuff. We've been working with Stu Sikes a lot, he was at Easley-McCain in Memphis but that burned down so he lives in Dallas now and has been coming down to Austin for sessions.
Emoticon for this one: tie. and
TV Torso offers its 7" for download on the site -- a lot of bands do not like to give away their music for free. What are the pros and cons of free downloads of your music?
I think the pros are fairly obvious: ,
, and
Cons outweigh the pros though, because: ,
,
, and
TV Torso doesn't have a MySpace page, which is very rare these days - any reasons for that? How would you define success for the band? Besides the official showcase at SXSW, are you planning on playing any other shows? Any goals for 2010?
We prefer YouFace. When our Status changes from "Chill" to "Weirdsies," be sure to "finger-tag" us.
My definition of success is definitely .
We're playing Friday night of SXSW at Emo's Annex, we're looking forward to it! We are also supposed to play a bunch of parties this year but we have no idea where or when. I would like to try to play about 10 times if we can but the studio is also fully booked that week so it will be hilarious to watch us try to juggle both somehow.
Our goals for 2010 are: a) to get our shit together and b) .
WOXY is presenting this show on Thursday at Beerland -- are you familiar with them? What is right and wrong with mainstream radio -- do you listen to stations in town like 101X, 93.7 KLBJ, etc., or do you prefer online radio stations like WOXY?
WOXY, they moved into that "adults'-only" movie theater on South Congress I believe.
Conventional radio should return to a Wolfman Jack format, which is pretty much what the online ones are trying to do.
I don't have XM but I really like Bob Dylan's show he used to do on XM, Theme Time Radio Hour. Sometimes I'll turn on 101X in the car, they have this hilarious announcer guy that says "X" in this crazy nasal voice in the epilepsy-inducing sound clips they do between commercials that fills me with equal parts revulsion and relish. Everyone knows the guy I am talking about, he says, "101.....(ripping noises).....X", then BOOM, Stone Temple Pilots. I listen to Paul Ray's Twine Time on KUT and KVRX and the online ones, too.
In conclusion:
Thank you speaking with Austinist.
Thank you Adi/Austinist, very much.
[TV Torso Official]
[Dirty Dancing MySpace]
[The Happen-Ins MySpace]
