Photographers I like Vol. 6: Rasha Kahil

Roaming around Rough Trade East is one of my new most famous things to do. I am always skint, so just holding records and looking around at the excited faces of those who can afford to be in there is about as much as I can get out of the experience, but it feels like so much more. Perhaps I'm just pretending to be hip... Anyway, I came across a thin newspaper of photographs and erotic stories called XI a while ago, and I stupidly forgot to write anything about it, even though it was one of the most beautiful (and sexy) things I've ever seen...

Excerpt from the text:

"XI was the sadist to my masochism.
We had g-chatted all day at work, but I had misunderstood his invitation to
fuck in the office toilets, and missed my chance. By 6pm, I was all tingly
and force-invited myself to his flat, despite his protests about him having
band practice. I told him I just needed 45 minutes, to which he replied “only?”.
I smiled as we boarded the 55."

It was made and published by a girl called Rasha Kahil, who happens to be a bit of a dab hand with a camera. Her photos remind me a little of people like Ryan McGinley, but more natural and personal (well in my mind anyway, and on here that's all that matters). Her blog is awesome as well. I'm always so jealous of people who are more proactive with their cameras and take them everywhere, as that's when you get the best snaps - when you least expect it. Below are a selection of her photographs that I most enjoyed, but I have to say that there really aren't any bad ones.

Perfect?

Bungalow Hate: Interview with Weed Diamond

There’s a plethora of bedroom projects cropping up nowadays. Kids certainly seem to be putting their private spaces to much better use than I ever did, turning their back on the N64 and turning off the idiot box. One such chap is Tim Perry, whose musical alias Weed Diamond is churning out a enough tormented pop and doo wop to separate him from the Garage Band copy cats who claim they’ve always listened to Barbara Alston and that Phil Spector has always been their idol. The sincerity of the vocals on Weed Diamond’s records penetrates the fuzz that makes them all but inaudible, making the high pitched sound of Tim’s voice, as with all great pop songs, just another layer of sound in the music. Stand out track, “Nothing To Write Home About”, from his free demo sounds like Woods singing at the Enchantment Under The Sea Dance and fills every inch of the 3 minutes 41 seconds (the longest track on the demo by far) it’s given to grow with pained harmonies and slow strummed guitars. I got to have a chat with Tim the other day to get a run down on how the project developed and which is his favourite Raekwon record…

So, Weed Diamond is a solo project right? How did you go about making those first songs?

Weed Diamond: Yeah, weed diamond is just me right now. I'm looking for a few other people to help out with shows and stuff though. I don't really know what those songs came out of. i wrote and recorded them over the course of a few days a couple months ago and let them sit for a while and finally i showed them to one of my friends and he told me i should put it out there. It was just one of those weird creative bursts.

How long have you been playing music? Is this your first musical venture?

I've been playing guitar since I was 13 (I'm 21 now) so I've been doing music for a while. i grew up in a really musical family and for a while i hated the idea of making music, but as I've gotten older its become a larger part of me. no this isn't me first music project or anything. I've been in a few bands over the last few years but all of them have either gone by the wayside or things just fell through.

Cool, and what spurred you on to make music as Weed Diamond?

I think it was mainly me getting back to the basics, musically. things were getting too cluttered in my arrangements. too much going on and no direction. i wasn't having fun with music anymore. i took a break on writing for a while and when i finally sat down to play guitar i ended up writing "mr. vacant stare" and a few days later I had 6 songs recorded.

What was your main thinking behind that song?

lyrically?

Yeah

I wrote that about this "summer romance" i had last year and about how it ended badly, blah blah blah. i think a lot of people think its just about being high but in reality its a totally different subject.

Your name does tend to portray you in a certain way!

Yeah haha. that never really even occurred to me until I started getting feedback from people.

What is the reason behind the name?

I don't really think there is a specific reason. i liked how it sounded and i think it can mean different things to people or evoke certain imagery. i like names like that. I also didn't want to put a lot of meaning behind the name because i don't want my band name to be attached to a fleeting memory, you know?

Yeah sure, I guess that focusing on something abstract means that no meaning of it is lost as time goes by I guess - that what you were getting at?

Yes, exactly.

What are the main influences would you say on Weed Diamond?

I'd say Denver is a big influence. Just everything about my experience here. Musically, I don't really know. I actually haven't been listening to much music lately besides Raekwon and The Who haha.

Which Raekwon album have you been listening too?!

I've been listening to "only built..." a lot lately. that's the only album i have from him, but it's a classic.

That album is my favourite hip hop album of all time! I wrote a blog on it a while ago, as the office that I was working in started playing it everyday and rekindled my love - so sick.

I know, verbal intercourse is like the best song i've heard in my entire life.

All about incarcerated Scarfaces my friend! And guillotine swords

Its like a beatles album. every songs a classic.

Too true. I'm just listening to your demo now and I've noticed that the songs are really short and sharp hits. Do you think that your sound is pop? How would you describe it?

I think I would describe it as pop. When people ask me what type of music I make I just say "rock n roll." I think its the easiest way to describe it before you get into all those sub genres and stuff.



cool, it's weird because as the demo tape plays through you can hear so many types of music on it I find - like the last track "Stevie Wonder is Tooo High" almost feels quite proggy, like a solo in the middle of a cloud of reverb…but then I guess it finishes a lot more quickly than most prog songs!

Yeah, that song I actually used a keyboard and it has a really simple repetitive beat. I battled for a while about whether or not to include that song on the demo but I think its a good closer to the whole thing. It does have a proggy feel though.

So, you've got a 7" coming out on Transparent, right? How did that come about?

Yeah! They were the first people to contact me after I made the myspace for weed diamond. They really liked "let's burn one down" and a few days later or something they asked if I would want to put out a single this coming winter.

Have you played many live shows yet?

I actually haven't played any with Weed Diamond yet. I'm trying to set something up for the end of the month with my friend's band "Last Eyes." probably a wacky house show or something.

How would your recorded work translate to live, do you think? Would you get other people to play the different parts of the song?

Yeah, I'm hoping I can get a few buddies together and we can practice like 5 or 6 songs and try to work out a coherent set.

What do you tend to make your recordings on?

I usually use Logic to record all the instruments, but I did a cover of the bee gee's "Every Christian Lion Hearted Man" with a 4 track recorder. I'm pretty inexperienced with recording software so I'm still in the learning process.

With the whole LO-FI revivalist movement happening in seemingly every big town - lots of people seem to be jumping on the band wagon and recording with GarageBand - what are your views on GB?

I think garage band is great. I've never really used it but almost all of my friends use that because it’s easy, and free. But since anyone can use it, that definitely opens up the possibilities of their being a lot of half assed, processed music there.

I ask only because some people have expressed their hatred with the thing. It just seems like Wavves started a bit of a revolution with it, leading to loads of copy cats…What bands that around at the moment do you enjoy listening too?

I've been listening to Cameron Wisch's "Flower wars" a lot. Railcars new "Cathedral With No Eyes" is fucking phenomenal. Came out of no where for me. I've actually been pretty keen on a lot of some local kids around here, too.

Like who?

Last Eyes is really great. Like heartbreaking noisy guitar stuff. One big Denver guy is Pictureplane and his new album is really awesome. Pina Chulada is incredible. Their song "What You Mean" is in my head every time I wake up. This kid Colin has this project called alphabets and its fucking prolific. He's only 19 and he's made like 900 songs.

Jesus

Yeah, he's a prodigy.

What do you want to do next with this project?

I'm concentrating more on the mix of the recordings with my first release that I'm putting out. I don't want all the instruments to get lost in it and have it just turn out to sound like some fuzzy mush, and I'm in the planning stages of setting up shows and maybe do a mini tour.

Designs

Been away for too long...

Found this on a friend of a friend's blog today



made me cackle. Think the guy who did it is from Bristol, but just in case you don't bump into him on Park Street, then check out his blog.

The Almighty Defenders

Zines are awesome. Coming from the back of beyond originally, genuinely good self-published literature, the desire to do anything different or, in fact, creativity of any description were, unsuprisingly, lacking somewhat. Therefore, I'm now loving the fact that at various places near to my new home I can pick up a cute little pamphlet (like that word) and get a sneak peek into someone else's strange little world.



The latest one I've found, Tally Ho!, is of such good quality, I couldn't believe that they didn't at least charge something for it! It's full of cool illustrations, reviews, thoughts and just incredibly good writing (I must say that some of it is a little self-indulgent, but therein lies the beauty of the zine). I like the fact, also, it has alerted me to what I now think is the most wonderful news I have heard all year...THE ALMIGHTY DEFENDERS! Again, this young blogger hangs his head in shame that he was unaware of the Black Lips and King Khan and the BBQ getting together to form the second (The Babies) garage supergroup of the year!! The Black Lips were already pretty special, but then to add, arguably, one of the most charismatic lead singers in the game (The King) is almost too much awesome for my ear drums to take in one sitting. They sound like exactly what they are - a group of pals having fun and jamming the shit out their songs...dressed in preachers robes. The song that they have on their myspace that I adore is "Cone Of Light", but I can't find that to add on here so here's a video of their first ever live performance in June...BEST. THING. EVER. King Khan and the Shrines are playing Cargo next week!! Be there or BEWARE!

Felix and the Machines!

So, I've been away from my computer for a while living life in the analogue world, but now I'm back and ready to stuff wires into my eyeballs and press my ears to my speakers. I've just started to do some work for a new publication (more on that later) and, inadvertently, I've been exposed to a whole new world of visual delights...

I found out about this guy a few days ago, and I was pretty impressed so I thought he deserved a shout-a-bout on the blog. Felix Thorn makes musical sculptures that act as a visual and audio display features that can be incorporated as an installation piece in their own right or as part of a larger contruction. The only way that I could describe it is to say that if the synthesiser from Masters of the Universe, Dick Van Dyke and Megatron got together for a Menage a trois in the belly of the Child Catcher, Felix's machines would be the end product. Anyways, I really enjoyed this video, and I hope you do too...

Felix's Machines from Felix Thorn on Vimeo.

Bungalow Hate: Interview with Indian Wars

You know that band I was chomping on about the other day, Indian Wars? Well, so do I. They sing garage pop songs about girls and, basically, have a good time. They're like the Black Lips before they thought it would be a good idea to do a song with GZA...they're also Canadian, and not from Texas even though they sound a lot like they could be. This hateful bungalow caught up with Dave and Brad from the band the other day to shoot the shit in a rather confusing repete on instant messenger, and discovered a little more about a little more...because I really had no idea of anything about this band. Perhaps this is an exclusive??

How did Indian Wars get together?

Dave: We've all known each other for a long time. My brother and I met Fraser a while back through skateboarding. And same with brad, we all met through skateboarding really.

How many people in the band and how old are you all?

Dave: There’s four of us. I’m the oldest (28), John's 25, Frasers 24 and brads 22.

Had you all been in bands before? How long have Indian Wars been together?

Brad: I’m 23.
Dave: Sorry Brad.
Brad: I forget my own age sometimes haha
Brad: I’ve never been in a band before John and Dave were in an awesome band, though.
Dave: My brother and I had a band when we were 12 with our current roommate Tosh, who is a rad dude. Just stupid songs about space ships and shit. Then we had another band called Smash TV with our friends Pierce, Dave and Mike. We played a lot of talking heads and Iggy and the Stooges. It was fun.

Sick, and how long has Indian Wars been together?

Dave: We started jamming in our grandmas garage around 2 or 3 years ago. That was with all four of us. Then it was just Brad, John and I, because Fraser was too crazy. The band at that point was called Strange Hands, but we changed the name to Indian Wars because there's a rad band in France called strange hands. Now Fraser is back in the band.
Brad: September 21st 2008 is when we signed up on Myspace and at that time Frase wasn’t even in the band, so I guess we’ve been an actual band doing actual recordings for a year.

I was going to say - if you were a new band - your sound is so polished and loud! Definitely shows that you guys have been jamming for a while. Why did you choose the name Indian Wars then?

Dave: Do you wanna answer that one brad?
Brad: because Indians are badass. Haha not really , Dave had another Myspace page for odds and ends and ideas for songs that he called Indian Wars, then when we changed our name we were all stoked on that
Dave: Its kind of named after two things. There's a song called ‘Indian War Whoop’, an old time song played by John Hartford that we really like. Also, the Indian Wars that took place on the plains.

Sorry I'm British - what are they? I know like red indians and kevin Costner and land struggles and stuff…

Brad: Yeah red indians, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_wars - the band is named after this event. They were clashes between settlers and American indians over land and resources. I was really into the civil war, Custer, and this time period. A pretty interesting time in history.

What are the main influences for Indian Wars?

Dave: Sorry...lets get back on track. Brad, you wanna list yours?
Brad: Yes. I think The Band was a big influence, their style doesn’t really com across in our music but I think they are the reason that we wanted to start a band, , love those guys... Dead Ghosts... they’re pretty much the only reason that people listen to us, Drew records all of our songs…Ya, the Dead Ghosts are a huge influence, and have taught us tons of stuff, from recording to equipment we need to playing live. We owe them alot. They're rad.
Brad: i think that alot of our influences are not at all the style of music that we play, but we listen to alot of garage and stuff like that so I would imagine thats where the sound comes from.

And is that how you would classify your sound, Garage?

Brad: I guess so, thats what most people say , what do you think Dave?
Dave: I think the first two recordings that we did were definitely garage sounding. Some of the more recent stuff is a little more poppy, and we have some pretty heavily country influenced/sounding songs we are going to be recording as well.

Yeah, you definitely can hear some of the country influence coming through

Brad: yeah i was going to say, the new stuff is more countryish.
Dave: For sure. For influences we forgot George Jones. That's where the country in our sound comes from. It’s all George Jones.
Brad: And his perfect smile

OK, you mentioned Dead Ghosts earlier - what is the underground music scene like in Vancouver? Is it pretty tight? The reason that I ask is that is that when I went there a couple of years ago someone told me that the music community wasn't really there…

Brad: A couple of years ago we weren’t really in the scene haha, but I would agree there wasn’t much going on…now there’s lots of shows going on. Vancouver is no Austin or Florida, but its definitely cool.
Dave: I think it's getting pretty good right now. It definitely lagged for a while. A couple of bands that we really like right now are Time Copz and Student Teacher, along with Dead Ghosts.

Have you managed to put any tapes out or anything?

Brad: nope, we only had 2 songs recorded well up until last night, now we have 4.

Cool, and how will it work from here? Do you plan to put anything out? Would you put stuff out on a split with another band?

Brad: Dave, I am answering all the questions!
Dave: We've got a split planned with the Fungi Girls that we're looking forward to. That should be good. We have to get someone to put that out though. We've been talking with a couple of labels, maybe to put out a 7 or 10 inch...but we're always looking for opportunities. We're just excited to get some vinyl out there.



So, I take it that gigs are where the fan base is coming from? What are your favourite kinds of shows to play?

Brad: HOUSE PARTIES!!!!
Dave: House parties are the best.

Yeah, some of the pictures on your Myspace are so rad! They all seem to be in someones bedroom.

Brad: Haha i believe youre refering to johns bedroom / our jam space?

I like the summer soltice picture especially with one of you wearing the face paint (at top)

Dave: Ya, that was the first time we played live in front of anyone. We were all so drunk. We couldnt remember how to play any of the songs. Haha.
Brad: Thanks, I think I should do that more often, yeah thats the first time we played in front of more people than just our girlfriends, the Dead Ghosts just showed up with their gear and made us do it. It was a good time.

Amazing. The picture that actually made me have to write a blog on your guys this morning was the picture of someone doing a huge air with a beer in his hand - that is the raddest fucking thing I've seen in so long!

Dave: That’s our friend Parm. He shreds. Such an awesome guy.
Brad: Yeah we are cheersing two cans of beer.

So good. So what would you say would have to be Indian Wars ultimate Top 5 records?

Brad: I think it would be different for each dude
Dave: Can we do our own top 5's?
Brad: Sure.
Dave: You go first.
Brad:
• The Band - Music From Big Pink
• 13th Floor Elevators - Psychedelic Sounds of..
• The Seeds - The Seeds
• Sonny Rollins - Way Out West
• Then I would say some blues album, im not sure this is really hard actually, maybe Otis Redding - Otis Blue.

Dave:
• The Basement Tapes by Bob Dylan and the Band
• Fats Waller and his Rhythm by Fats Waller
• Best of George Jones by George Jones
• The upcoming unreleased Dead Ghosts Album
• Purple Rain by Prince. (fuck, prince sucks now).


Yeah, how the symbol has fallen.

Winstone

Talking of King Khan...

CARGO 29TH SEPTEMBER - BEWARE!!!!!!!!

Indian Wars!!

I woke up this morning with a head filled with cobwebs, an ear full of alarms and my arm around nothing...but things quickly looked up. I figured I would spend the day listening to the Beatles and texting my ex-girlfriend, and then I happened upon a new blog (which I'm going to keep a secret for a while), which opened my lazy heart up to a whole new world of musical delight. I was going to wait a while to start preaching the news of this new band, but I've got a spare couple of hours so I thought 'fuck it', you're only young once...also once I saw the picture above I knew it belonged on my blog!

Indian Wars are a band of Canadians with a penchant for loud, Black Lips-esque, sharp hits of danceable garage punk. Think screeching guitars, fast drum rolls and an injection of blues vocals. They're the most exciting thing that I've heard in a long time, but maybe I just haven't listened to King Khan in a while. I went to Vancouver a couple of years ago and I was informed that there wasn't much of a music scene there, but the more I trawl this vast expanse of wires and signals I find more and more reasons why I should have trusted my instincts and bought an apartment there immediately. Record labels such as Old Life Records - who actually didn't get back to me when I tried to buy some tapes from them last year, but I forgive them - who are based in Vancouver Island, are making positive strides towards making a big impression on the underground music scene...so, perhaps there's even more to come...

Seriously though, check out Indian Wars - party time!