The New Year, Uglysuit and Sunset Stallion will take the stage in the opposite order in which they were just listed Sunday night at the Highdive. The New Year may not be a band you have heard of, but Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard is a fan and they’ve been around for 15 years, getting their start in the early-to-mid ‘90s as Bedhead. Their stock in trade is slow, introspective songs; according to a press release, Band of Horses covered one of their songs on The O.C., not that any of you cool kids would ever watch such a show.
Uglysuit, on the other hand, is an upstart Oklahoma City collective which trends more toward the slowly psychedelic. Sunset Stallion is a local band who’s been interviewed on Smile Politely before.
On Sunday, doors open at 8 p.m., Sunset Stallion goes on at 8:30, Uglysuit follows at 9:30 and The New Year finishes things off at 10:30. Tickets are $12 in advance, and probably a few bucks more at the door.
There are two excellent reasons for you to click that tantalizing “Continue Reading” button below: the first is that you can find out how to win a pair of tickets to the show, and the second is that there’s an interview with The New Year’s Matt Kadane.
The first person to email me will win a pair of tickets to the show, courtesy of Touch and Go Records. Please, no Smile Politely writers or close family members thereof. Now, on to the interview:
Smile Politely: Where are you guys at?
Matt Kadane: We’re about 20 miles outside of Pontiac, where we’re playing tonight.
SP: Where are you from, or where do you live now?
MK: I’m in upstate New York, Chris, who plays drums is from New York City, my brother is in Dallas, Will is from Austin, our bass player is from Vermont.
SP: Is that tricky?
MK: It can be tricky to practice, but we send tapes back and forth and remove some of the trickiness.
SP: Have you been spread out for most of the time as The New Year and Bedhead, or is this a new arrangement?
MK: Yeah, we’ve been spread out since 1994. We’re accustomed to this.
SP: So, whereabouts did you grow up?
MK: My brother and I grew up in Wichita Falls, Texas, which is a medium-sized cow and oil town.
SP: Do you think being spread out and not being part of a scene has an effect on the music you produce?
MK: I like not being part of a scene actually, part of it anyway. I think Texas is pretty varied, and a wide range of music comes from there. I don’t know if being spread out affects it or not.
SP: Could you walk me through how some of the songs on the album came together?
MK: Bubba and I send tapes back and forth to one another and work out the songs. One of us will get the basis of the song together and then we’ll work together to hammer out the parts.
SP: Do you come together to record, then, or does everybody lay down tracks separately?
MK: We do come together to record. We’ve been recording for the last ten years in Chicago. For the last two records, we’ve done the mixing at Echo Lab, a studio in Denton.
SP: Listening to your music, I thought you sounded a lot like Luna. Do you get that a lot?
MK: Not really, it’s not really a band that we have a lot in common with from our perspective. I’ve think we’ve listened to some of the same things, but that’s not a band that we take active inspiration from.
SP: Who are some bands that you take active inspiration from?
MK: Honestly, I don’t listen to a lot of music, so I don’t know, I think I’m still taking inspiration from bands I liked when I was a lot younger, and bands that I currently like. I like a band called The Bottomless Pit, I like the new Shannon Wright record.
SP: Well, those are bands that I wouldn’t have heard of. There’s a lot of music out there.
MK: It’s good, I guess, it’s better, but it’s overwhelming.
SP: How has The Music Industry changed since you’ve been around and in a band.
MK: The consumption of music has changed forms, and it’s striking that so much music is freely available now, considering how we bought music 15 years ago. Touring hasn’t changed all that much. GPS and Priceline has made it easier, but a lot of the venues haven’t changed, the routes haven’t changed.
SP: Have you been through C-U before?
MK: Well, The New Year played in Champaign in 2001 or 2002, but Bedhead never made it there, so this is only our second time. But we had a good time, so we’re looking forward to it.