One part matured punk to two parts saturated psychedelia, Reading Rainbow ooze out of your speakers with distorted guitars, battered synths and a determination to make you remember what it’s like to be a kid again. Listening back to Philadelphians Robbie Gee(Garcia) and Sarah Eee’s (Everton) band is like being trapped in a tribal drum, listening to John Dwyer’s new psych-punk incarnation, draped in Joseph’s Technicolor dream coat. I spoke to Sarah yesterday on instant messenger to talk vagina poetry and the Turtles…
Hey. First off - how did Reading Rainbow get together?
Sarah Eee: Well, Rob and I were in another band together. It was like a spastic no wave style punk band and we had a show booked, but our then drummer couldn't make it. So, we had been talking about doing our own two-piece project, so we went ahead and wrote 8 songs in 2 weeks, and I learned the drums. I don't play a full drum kit so that's why I was able to, somewhat, learn the drums in 2 weeks.
So, how is the music that RR play a deviation from that first punk band?
The first band was just this silly thing that we didn't take very seriously. It was the first and only other band I've been in. I didn’t even play real parts, just noise on a circuit bent keyboard. Rob and I still both sang but other than that, it's totally different. We take Reading Rainbow very seriously. The lyrics in our first band were fucking stupid because we didn’t really care what they were, we just wanted something to scream but with RR, it's actually meaningful. The other band was just a release of energy.
How old were you both when you started that band, and how old are you now? - just to give some background.
I think I was 23 and Rob was 24? I'm 26 now, and Rob's 27.
Sound. Getting back to Reading Rainbow - Reading Rainbow is the name of a kid’s TV show, right? That’s not how you came up with the name though is it?
Yeah it is! I know its kind of silly, but we choose it for a couple reasons. First of all I liked the idea of taking the name out of context and redefining what it meant. Also, I grew up watching a lot of it and my mom was an elementary school librarian and had it all on VHS. So it has a lot to do with childhood nostalgia…and its alliteration!
Alliteration is always fun! I don't think we have that show over here so I'm not sure how good it is - I was always more of a Turtles kinda kid
Oh yeah I was too. I wanted to marry Donatello, which sounds kind of messed up.
It was all about LEO!!
Haha he was a goody goody!
Donatello was the biggest nerd! Sword is so much better too.
Psssh Donatello was smart as shit and always made shit. Also, Rob knows how to use a bo staff too. It's weird haha.
So, you mentioned that the lyrics are important to you in Reading Rainbow - what is the main subject matter you like to deal with?
First, we only wrote about being scared of living in the city and how dangerous it is, and how we'd love to go back and live in the forest surrounded by nature. Recently we've been writing more about caring about shit and actually wanting to be productive and contribute.
Where are you guys originally from then?
I'm from Richmond, VA and Rob 's dad was in the air force so he moved every 2 years. He's not really from anywhere.
I know that Philly has got this reputation as being "Killadelphia", but how bad is it as far as your concerned?
It's pretty scary if you're in certain neighbourhoods at certain times. But it's like any city - there’s always a sketchy part a few blocks away from wherever you are. You just have to be careful and not wander around drunk late at night.
Yeah, I always find that it's the case that when a place is known to be super rough or super dangerous that it always tends to be the most fun place to actually live in. There’s more community and stuff.
Yeah! There's always more diversity of culture and you don't have like such a big yuppie living in a homogenous bland town.
So, how developed is the garage "scene" in the area you live? - I say garage simply because that's what is what is on your myspace - How would you describe the music you make?
I wouldn't really say there's much of a scene as far as the music we make in Philly. All the bands we have an affinity with are in CA or NYC. We chose garage because it was the closet thing we could think of on the myspace genre options! We would describe our music as super reverby, minimalist, distorted, punk, I guess.
What would you say are the main influences on Reading Rainbow?
The Velvet Underground, The Urinals, and pretty much all good old bands from the late 70's. We love Devo. I feel like there's more, but I can’t think of anything right now! The song Totem Pole was really influenced by Sun Ra.
You mentioned having an affinity with certain other bands from CA and NYC - which bands do you have an affinity with? Are any of them new bands?
Oh yeah a lot of them are new. We really love Crocodiles, Dum Dum Girls, and Thee Oh Sees in CA and Beach Fossils from Brooklyn are sooo good!!
Good choices. Are you guys signed officially yet? Your new album is getting released by SSMK, right?
We are not signed. Yeah SSMK and this other label Single Girl Married Girl are co-releasing our album.
What does SSMK stand for again?
Slip Shod Mucus Kiss - it's from an E.E. Cummings poem about vaginas!!
Isn’t that gross!?
Amazing! Does the sound on your new album continue where the free 8 track EP left off?
Oh yeah. We re-recorded all those songs. Those are the songs we made in the first 2 weeks before our first show. Almost all those songs are on the album, and we have some newer ones on there.
Just listening to it through now - so good. I think that drenching everything in reverb, the way you guys do, just makes everything sound so warm and comforting, but I read recently one guy who said that he thought that a lot the bands who are picking up this trend of distorting vocals and recording a lot of reverb on their records are just shirking the responsibility of writing a good song - what would you say to that?
I have so many things to say about that. First of all, Rob was doing that shit FOREVER. He has a side project called Sprained Ankles where the whole idea was soulful singing/wall of sound/drenched in reverb. He recorded a whole album before we did RR. So that was our aesthetic from way back. Secondly we actually record with a real 8 track reel-to-reel. We DO NOT use garage band! (Not to diss people who do, a lot of awesome bands use it) So, the dirty recording style happens naturally because that show we record it. Also, I think there's some truth to people covering up not writing really good songs by using reverb too much. To that I say pay better attention. You can pick out what’s good from what's boring if you listen.
Yeah, I've got to agree with that myself. I think that good songs kinda power through the whole reverb thing anyhow. The reverb, old sound, just adds to the overall effect.
Yeah, especially for us since we are a two-piece. It makes it more full and sonic sounding.
Who produced the album? When is it out now?
We produced it. It will be out in 2 weeks! So we are told.
Excited? Are you guys having a record launch or anything in your neighbourhood?
Yeah! We are at the end of September. I am super stoked about it.
So, are you guys set to tour off the back of the new record?
We just got done touring! We went all the way to the west coast and back for two weeks (got back Saturday night). We had it all planned out so that we could promote our album, and then it wasn’t even fucking ready!!! The pressing plant fucked us over.
Fuck - that's rubbish. How was the tour besides that?
It was so much fun and SO MUCH DRIVING. If you only have 2 weeks to go all the way to the west coast, your drives are 6 - 12 hours between shows.
Yeah, it’s weird for a Brit to understand how long touring must take you guys with all that ground to cover!
Haha yeah it was pretty abstract to us before we went. We just mapped it out, and were like “damn that's going to be a lot of driving!" but you don’t know til you do it. Thankfully our very good friend Daniel from Eternal Summers (Magic Twig Community) came with us to help with driving and to be keep things fun and awesome.
Which bands were you playing with - other than Eternal Summers, (I'm guessing)?
We wanted to tour with ES but Nicole couldn't come, so it was just Daniel. (He helped play tambourine). Our favourite bands we played with were Fungi Girls, Old Blood, Best Coast and Pearl Harbour.
That's a pretty amazing set of bands! Ok, what are the top five records that you've been listening too recently?
Duty Now for the Future – Devo; Help - Thee Oh Sees; Pink Flag – Wire; White Light White Heat – VU; my friend Abi's mix tape that has lots of Monks and really old weird obscure French pop and stuff on it. He doesn't include a track list with his tapes so we still aren’t sure what most of it is. We listened to such a vast array of stuff in the car on tour like tons of Yo La Tengo, and Houses of the Holy while we were in the desert haha.
I've been to like New York, Boston and Philly before, but I would love to visit Oregon and California.
Yeah it's soooo different. I feel like most of the East Coast cities are more dangerous/sketchy, but the West Coast's more dangerous in terms of nature the waves in the pacific are bigger and scarier, the forests have bigger animals that can eat you, and the desert has snakes and scorpions. It’s awesome as hell though!!
http://www.myspace.com/levarmotherfuckingburton
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