Lightfoot aka Jessica Dye is, like most artists, a very complex individual. As you can tell by her music she is epically heartbroken, but don’t worry boys she claims she is taking “boyfriend applications” and is “infinitely single”. Despite this heartache there is a positive overtone with her music. She isn’t all sadness either, this is a chick who met me after her ballet class and then drank High Life and shots of Jameson with me. So… here is what I could piece together based on notes from our hour or so long conversation:
Newdust: So tell me about Lightfoot? How did it get started? What does it mean?
Lightfoot: Well it all started with a break up and cancelled engagement that ended up with me living in my car in Clarendon. Not only was it a breakup but I had to split up my band and business as well. Lightfoot is basically where my old life meets my new life. It is also feeds into this idea of faded glory. Ya know, the old south that was once great in Virginia is no longer. The state is dominated by the Northern VA suburbs. The sentiment is definitely appealing to me.
ND: Wow… ok. You have a beautiful voice, how did you get your start as a musician?
LF: High school band where I played Tenor Sax. I have been singing for about 10 years but my old band I had with my ex Vox Pop, was basically like “band school”. I learned how to harmonize, write music, record music, and market my music.
ND: You don’t have whole lot of music out there yet. Tell me about “Sea of Love” and “Will Uncoil When”.
LF: (She takes a long sigh) First of all “Sea of Love” is a cover. (Your interviewer did not know this but her version is somewhere between Cat Power’s and Robert Plant’s) “Will Uncoil When” is based on what you see on Martin guitar string envelopes and it says “will uncoil when opened…” I thought that would be a clever idea for a song about breaking up. There is more to it… ha ha. But that is all I will give you for now. (Her demo being released at this Friday’s show is titled Letters from Martin.)
ND: Well that is fair enough… lets get away from the heartache for a minute. So… how does it feel to be on Hipster Wife Hunting?
LF: Ha ha… oh yeah. Well, I think I used to be an ugly duckling so its great that I am on this site as some sort of babe. Plus I thought some of the comments on there were pretty funny. Maybe I’ll find my future hipster husband… Though I don’t need to date any (more) guys that have their own Wikipedia page. I also am not a real hipster… (Your interviewer would like to clarify that Jessica is in fact an actual hipster because she talked about her Holga camera and her “Fixie” on more then one occasion.)
ND: So this might be a complicated question… but since you are a singer songwriter you don’t really fit into a scene that exists in DIY as I know it, but with that being said DC doesn’t have really any DIY scene at all. What do you think about DC’s music scene and how you fit into it?
LF: The scene is not really my concern. I really care about DC and my theory is that “the tide lifts all ships”. Yes, I am actively trying to have more house shows through my venue/home Paper Sun. I also am involved in other projects fashion etc. through my site Hella Tuff. I love this city and specifically Columbia Heights and I think with some work we can have a very thriving community here.
ND: Give me one DC band and one non-DC band our readers have to check out.
LF: I can’t give you just one DC band… U.S. Royalty they are totally radio ready, Matt Hemerlein full disclosure I sing with him sometimes, and Typefighter. Non-DC band… Reuben’s Accomplice from my original hometown of Phoenix.
ND: What can we look forward to from you in the next few months?
LF: Well I as you know, I am playing at the Rock and Roll Hotel at 8PM this Friday March 19th. I will be selling my demo Letters form Martin. There is a frightening permanence to putting music on tape so I am nervous about recording. I am talking to a few labels now and hope to have an EP out relatively soon, so stay tuned.
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Keep your eye on Lightfoot. I am sure we will hear more from her soon. Enjoy!
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Song: Will Uncoil When
Album: Letters from Martin (Demo)
I got a chance to see Freelance Whales last night at Mango’s Cafe in Houston, TX. These guys are fantastic live! If you’re gonna be in Austin this week for SXSW, I highly recommend you check ‘em out. Weathervanes is Freelance Whales’ latest effort, a love story between a little boy and a ghost who lives in his attic. It’s set to release April 13th, but can be pre-ordered on their site. Check out the footage below from last night at Mango’s; this is “Generator ^ 1st Floor.”:
I also had a little Q & A with drummer Jacob about the band, the album, and a ukelin:
Newdust: How did you guys all meet and when did you start playing together?
Jacob: Aside from Doris, who’s originally from Queens, we all had moved out to New York a year or two prior to pursue music. We had various projects posted online, and we were all scouring the web for music projects to work on. Judah had some great demos mocked up and he actively responded to the different things we were doing at the time. The formation went through some brief and semi-frequent lineup changes early on, but eventually came together fully as a quintet around November of 2008, and we played our first show a couple of months later, in January of 2009.
ND: I’ve seen several clips on youtube of the band performing out on the streets or in subways….Who’s idea was it to play street shows? With your tour in the works and your growing popularity, are you going to continue to play street shows?
J: We decided to play street shows – and will hopefully continue to play them when we can (we’ll be going out today for the first time since November) – because of the opportunity to meet new people and bring strangers to shows. We had gotten to a point where relying on our friends to come to shows every other weekend seemed unfair, so we used street performing as a sort of jumping-off point to play to crowds of people who had never heard us. The first time we did it, we noticed a handful of people from the street had come to the show a couple of hours later. So we’d play at least one street show before every “proper” show, and it grew from there.
ND: I read on your pr’s website that over the last couple years you guys have been collecting instruments. What’s the coolest instrument you’ve come across?
J: Judah just got a Chinese zither, and is in the process of putting it together. It’s an instrument I’ve always been fascinated with, so I’m really looking forward to getting that thing into the fold. Kevin is also working on restringing his ukelin – a sort of hybridized ukulele and violin – in the hopes that we can bring it out on the road and start writing with it.
ND: Weathervanes tells a ghost story. Tell me a little more about the story & how it came about.
J: The story is based on some dream logging that Judah did for a class in college. He filled up many-a-notebook and eventually noticed patterns forming in his dreams, which he pieced together into the thematic elements on Weathervanes. Without giving too much away, the story is about the relationship between the narrator – a young boy – and the ghost – a young girl – that haunts his childhood home. It’s about how she wants to be seen now that she’s gone, and how the boy can learn to be a ghost when his time comes.
ND: What’s next for Freelance Whales? is there a new album in the works?
J: There’s no new album, per se, but there are lots of ideas and song bits floating around. On our next tour we’re going to make a concerted effort to write together lots more, in the hopes that we can start to develop and play these new songs at shows. Many of our favorite bands are into road-testing material, and I think it’s an essential skill to have.
Well, there you have it! Look out for Weathervanes April 13th on Frenchkiss/Mom & Pop Records. I’ll let Freelance Whales play us out with “Generator ^2nd Floor”:
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So heads up on this relatively new act from Washington D.C. This lovely lady goes by many names but currently is playing under the moniker Lightfoot. She is performing live at DC’s Rock n’ Roll Hotel this Friday at 8PM. Enjoy!
PS: Check back tomorrow for my interview with Jessica (Lightfoot). Hopefully I can get all the juicy details about her songs of heartbreak.
Girlfriends remind me of those dudes in high school who barely managed to get out of bed everyday but somehow… were able to successfully write and coherently play enough music to fill a set during that weekend’s keg party. Their music embodies this Wavves-esque attitude of “I never want to grow up”. (See the Wavves track “No Hope Kids”) With a lo-fi style, monotone vocals, and songs that don’t get much longer then 2 1/2 minutes Girlfriends is a fun young band that has potential do much more. Enjoy!
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We did a post on Baby Birds Don’t Drink Milk back in October and since then they’ve been working on two upcoming full lengths titled Skeletor & Me and Know Yr Molars. They’ve also re-released their Puppycat EP as a 3″ CD, available on the CD-R only label Edition 59. Here’s the video by George Demoura for the instrumental “Fort Porkchop” off of Puppycat. Enjoy!
Great Vimeo find from The Faux Noise for the song “Save Me”. The band hails from Sweden and has a shoegaze-pop sound that is great for those rainy days and/or break up mixtapes. Also checkout their Soundcloud page for tons of free downloads and remixes.
With their sophomore release, Over The Sun And Under The Radar, Jungol is honing in on their renewed vision of more concise songs with prominent vocals. They’re creating new sounds through the use of samplers, synths, glockenspiel, field recordings and string arrangements. Due out April 23rd, here’s the first single, “Two People.”
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Artist: Jungol Song: Two Poeple.mp3 Album: Over The Sun And Under The Radar
The Pass took the time to answer a few questions. Very soon they will be leaving the bourbon soaked lands of Kentucky and will be out and about touring the country… keep eye out for them coming to a town near you. Check out their EP Colors.
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Song: Saturn’s Ocean
Newdust: Will, Kyle, Brian, Neil… What brought you guys together to play music?
The Pass: Kyle and I had been kicking around the idea of starting a band with a dance and synthesizer influence to it. Once we had some songs together we called up Neil and Brian who are amazing musicians and friends of ours from different projects. Then it was like when PB met J.
ND: There are a lot of diverse sounds going on, what are some musical touchstones that influence all of you guys?
The Pass: There are so many bands that have influenced our sound rather it be consciously or subconsciously. We definitely have an affinity for 80s pop like Michael Jackson and Madonna which explains one half of our gear being put out by Roland in 1983. Brian listens to a lot of experimental electronic stuff like aphex twin, squarepusher, ect. which definitely brings its own texture. Then I think theres the modern element of our music which is influenced by artists such as Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem, ect. Everyone brings something a little different to the band. One band we all like……ummm…….Maybe the Talking Heads. Does anybody not like them?
ND:Cross Walk Stereo is great song… I was listening to it with some buddies and we couldn’t help but notice the first 10 seconds is eerily similar to the first few seconds of Phoenix’s “1901″. Was this a an intentional homage or more sub-conscious?
The Pass: Ok…yea the 1901 thing was a huge accident. We were definitely listening to them around the time we wrote crosswalk stereo and I guess it was a sub conscious infiltration (sorry Thomas and gang). Once we realized the similarity we kind of like compared them to make sure we were good…like chords and rhythms. Its pretty much the same explanation as Vanilla Ice on Ice Ice Baby. Maybe one day we’ll cover 1901 and you wont even know until 10 seconds in…
ND: I know nothing about Louisville, Kentucky… How is it playing your style of music in a city that is not known for its electronic-pop scene?
The Pass: Well, we’ve actually been welcomed with mostly open arms. Louisville is a really cool open-minded town with a lot of diversity. Also, VHS or Beta are from here which I think warmed a lot of people up to the idea of a dance rock band. Theres really not a lot of similar bands to play shows with though so we kind of like the idea of playing with DJs.
ND: Give me 3 new songs and 3 old “dusty” tracks that our readers have to check out.
The Pass: 3 new songs?….. anything on the new Hot Chip album. Also dig that La Roux album and the new Friendly Fires vs Holy Ghost record. Three dusty tracks? ……..i can give you three dusty albums. Lou Reed – Transformer, Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense, and Nick Drake – Bryter Layter. Honorable mention, Madonna – Like A Virgin
Here’s an easy breezy little song to get you through the rest of the week. Slow Motion Love Hug are jam packed with “gather-’round-the-campfire” tunes that make you wanna just reach out and hug someone.
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Here’s a pretty sweet video from Nashville, Tennessee’s nite nite, off their debut album How To Touch The Moon. I thought I had the genre of this album figured out through the first three songs, but I soon found out what a wide range of moods and influences these guys have crammed into their sound by the time I’d reached the end. Record label Crash Avenue puts it best: “Think of nite nite as a punk-informed version of an Edward Gorey illustration, an early Blondie on acid, or a macabre pop group”. How To Touch The Moon makes for an exciting debut album, and I think these guys will hone and craft their already unique sound into something really compelling going forward.
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FaltyDL is ‘a veritable fountain of electronica, IDM, jungle, and drum and bass.’ This is trip hop at its finest. The album is short and sweet, and extremely addictive. Try listening to it just once. Click here to download the album.
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To be perfectly honest, I do not really know much about Games. I know they are from Brooklyn and have released a few mixtapes via their blog. They have that great chillwave (ugh hate that word, it sounds like some sort of designer drug) sound. I scored these two tracks and I am pretty sure they are demos so… hopefully more tracks will be released very soon. Enjoy!
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