Tag: Eagles of Death Metal

Deap Vally Invite Creative Collaborators Into Their Rock ‘N’ Roll Marriage

Photo Credit: Ericka Clevenger/Kelsey Hart

The musical marriage between Lindsey Troy and Julie Edward began a decade ago when they committed their respective rock ‘n’ roll talents to Deap Vally. Their long friendship and professional partnership has been creatively fertile in the last two years, culminating in the release of their third album, Marriage, released November 19 via Cooking Vinyl. It follows two EPs released earlier this year: in February, they dropped the Digital Dream EP and in June, American Cockroach.

Both the EPs and Marriage are the products of the “collaboration series” the duo began after releasing their second album Femejism in 2016, which was produced by Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs notoriety.

“After Femejism came out, we did quite a bit of touring in the US,” says Troy. “We were on the road a lot, and then, once we finally got time to do some more writing, we were trying to figure out how to shake up the writing process and make it exciting for us again, because we’d spent so much one-on-one time with each other.”

Reaching out to potential collaborators – something that happens often in EDM and hip-hop, but not so much in the rock ‘n’ roll world – proved to do just that. One of their first acts they got in touch with was The Flaming Lips, with some unexpected results.

“That ended up turning into a full record!” says Troy. “We released that first, but originally that was meant to be a song as part of our collaboration series.” The Deap Lips album, a scuzzy, hazy-glam, psyched-out antidote to the pandemic blues, whet their appetites for more creative partnerships. The possibilities open to them as they expanded beyond their two-piece lineup felt suddenly real and immediate, as evidenced by the bleepy, trippy, Wayne Coyne-flavoured track “The Pusher.”

“The beauty of collaborating is that you can always take something new away from witnessing and participating in someone else’s approach,” says Edwards. “Although we had many of our collaborations already in progress when we wrote with the Lips, it was inspiring to see their seamless blend of practical work ethic with spontaneous inspiration. Definitely recording at the Flaming Lips studio in Oklahoma was a true highlight so far.” 

“So far” refers to the ten years since Edwards and Troy formed Deap Vally in 2011. When they met in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, Edwards had been a vocalist, drummer, and keyboardist for LA-band The Pity Party alongside Marc Smollin since 2005, which toured and released EPs until 2012. Meanwhile, San Diego-born singer-guitarist Troy had (child-prodigy style) teamed up with her sister Anna to form The Troys, recording their debut album for Elektra Records in 2002 but never releasing it (Lindsey was just 15 at the time, and Elektra closed shop soon afterwards). The sisters released their solo projects in 2006: Anna’s Ain’t No Man LP; Lindsey’s Bruises EP months later. Lindsey had been doing her own solo thing until meeting Edwards, in the last place you’d expect given their hard-hitting sound.

“Lindsey actually came into my shop, The Little Knittery, and I taught her how to crochet and knit, and that’s how we met,” says Edwards. “At this point, there’s pretty much no downtime to make stuff, but we used to knit compulsively on the road and sell our handknits at shows.”

They shared more in common than a love of crochet. The two women spoke the same language when it came to rock, bonding over a love of Led Zeppelin.

Their own raw, noodling, punk-garage-blues rock relies purely on guitar, drums and frank, feminist lyrics delivered in a full-throated holler. The duo signed to Island Records in 2012 on the strength of their first single, “Gonna Make My Own Money;” the raucous, frenetic drums teamed with fuzzy, savage guitar riffs and a Karen O-style guttural-yet-melodic moan was undeniably a anthemic feminist cry in the spirit of Bikini Kill, L7 and Babes In Toyland. It would appear on their 2013 EP Get Deap! alongside three additional tracks that Spin declared “a burst of self-reliant aggression.”

“It’s unapologetic, heavy and groovy,” the duo stated in their trailer for the EP, in which the furious, fabulous “End Of The World” soundtracks footage of Troy and Edwards looking suitably rock ‘n’ roll with their big hair, swigging hard liquor straight from the bottle and ferociously swinging their instruments about on stage. That was but a sampling of the 11-track debut to come: Sistrionix, recorded in LA with producer Lars Stalfors of The Mars Volta, dropped in June of that same year. With instant acclaim came festival spots at Latitude, Leeds and Reading Festivals in the UK, and tours with The Vaccines, Muse, Wolf Mother, Marilyn Manson and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The same album spawned one of my favourite Deap Valley bangers: “Baby I Call Hell,” a hot, hollering, anthemic rock beast in which Troy demands of her lover, “Are you gonna please me, like you swore you would, or is it just to tease me? Better treat this woman good!”

Femejism followed in 2016, and 2017 saw the duo touring with Blondie and Garbage on the Rage and Rapture Tour. But their marriage was feeling frayed at the edges and the creative spark had been dulled by domestic demands (both Troy and Edwards have very young children). The thrill of releasing music as Deap Lips only confirmed that collaborations seemed to reignite the muse, and Marriage showcases that renewed passion.

“High Horse” features KT Tunstall and Peaches. “She’s brilliant as fuck, bold, funny, and completely down to Earth,” says Edwards of Peaches. “She’s a blessing to humankind, truly.”

Eagles of Death Metal bassist Jennie Vee is a primal force on “I Like Crime.”

“A few years ago, we played a really great rock festival called Aftershock…one of the bands playing was Eagles of Death Metal,” recalls Troy. “I’m a huge fan of Eagles of Death Metal – they’re such a tasty, feel-good, unique, authentic rock ’n’ roll band. We were watching them side stage and Julie and I were like, ‘Holy crap! Who is this woman?’ We didn’t know they had a female bass player… she’s incredible, she had such good stage presence, she looked so cool. We were blown away.”

The mutual love affair resulted in studio time in LA, with “I Like Crime” completed in three days.

On “Look Away,” the dreamy, sadly romantic Warpaint vibe is unmistakable thanks to jennylee. It’s a bittersweet, ’80s-style ballad in which the refrain “This is heart, this is heart, this is heartache” smarts with the raw, hopeless lonely fog of a breakup.  

“We booked a day at the Cave Studio in LA with engineer/producer Josiah Mazzaschi and we went in with jennylee, and basically the way we started writing together was just with spontaneous jamming in the live room that Josiah recorded,” recounts Edwards. “We jammed out a few different spontaneous ideas that were just springing up and then took a break to listen to what we came up with. Listening to jams can be painful and funny, and we embraced that. Then we picked which jam we all agreed was our favorite, and we started to build on that. We got most of the structure and ideas done in a day, and then did two more days to finish the song. It was really fun and easy. The whole point was not to overthink it and to surrender to the song that was forming, rather try to control the outcome.” Spontaneity and surrender: the perfect recipe for a rock ‘n’ roll marriage likely to go the distance another ten, if not twenty, years.

Follow Deap Vally on Instagram for ongoing updates.

NEWS ROUNDUP: PJ Harvey, Basement Queens, & Heathcliff Berru

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  • Sadie Dupuis & Lizzo Debut New Song

    Sadie Dupuis (of Speedy Ortiz) and Lizzo released “Basement Queens,” on Wednesday, a song with a meta topic: women taking charge in the studio. The songwriting/recording process for the track was filmed by Google Docs, who sponsored the collaboration (in the video, you can see the two working on lyrics using the computer program). Next up: A Waxahatchee collaboration sponsored by MailChimp.

 

  • PJ Harvey Announces New Album

    The singer, songwriter, saxophonist and guitarist released video previews, and a full track, of  The Hope Six Demolition Project. Set for release on April 15th, the album was recorded in a special studio that let members of the public observe the recording process. The album trailer below hints at a record full of political commentary, and “The Wheel” is a grim look at the consequences of war. 

 

  • Josh Homme & Iggy Pop Also Announce New Album

    The frontmen for The Queens of The Stone Age and The Stooges announced that they secretly recorded an album together, and will be touring to promote it. Post Pop Depression comes out March 18th and also features Dean Fertita of the Dead Weather and Matt Helders of Arctic Monkeys. Homme, who records drums with the Eagles of Death Metal and occasionally plays live with the band, said working on the album helped him process the ordeal his bandmates went through when their concert was a target of terrorist attacks in France. Check out Homme and Iggy’s performance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DngIWkQVPgU

 

  • The Music Industry (Still) Has A Problem With Women

    Twitter exploded on Monday after Amber Coffman, of the Dirty Projectors, shared her story of being groped by Life or Death PR & Management’s former CEO, Heathcliff Berru. After other women in the music industry spoke up about Berru’s pattern of harassing women, many artists who had ties with his firm quickly severed them, including Wavves, D’Angelo, Speedy Ortiz, and DIIV.

    Berru released a statement blaming his behavior on alcohol on drugs, but as this piece points out, substance abuse does not suddenly make someone a sexual predator. As bad as his refusal to accept full responsibility is, what’s just as troubling is that many people in the industry seemed to know about his reputation, yet did not speak up and continued to hire him. The lack of consequences people like him face enforces a dangerous norm in the industry:

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  • Everyone Is Dying

    Glenn Fry of The Eagles passed away this week. He was 67. As all of our favorite rock’n’roll icons start to age, this is going to happen more and more frequently, making the next decade or so a very depressing one. Happy Friday!

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BEST OF 2015: The Year In Lyrics

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Words are pretty weird. One alone is easy to understand, almost impossible to misinterpret. But string a bunch of them together, and it gets more complicated (as well as beautiful, descriptive, romantic or hurtful). One line can make you remember a song forever, or dismiss it entirely. Out of all of the thousands, maybe millions of lyric that were recorded this year, here are some that stood out the most.

Father John Misty – “I Love You, Honeybear”

When a cynic finds love, they become an optimistic, cheerful person. Or, they recognize that “til death do us part” and “in sickness and in health” don’t quite cut it in a time of war, economic instability, and global warming. On I Love You, Honeybear, Josh Tillman examined many aspects of modern love, but none were as realistically romantic or sincere as on the title track: “But don’t ever doubt this, my steadfast conviction/ My love, you’re the one I want to watch the ship go down with.”

Hop Along – “Horseshoe Crabs”

On Painted Shut, Frances Quinlan wrote two songs about musicians that suffered breakdowns and faded into obscurity; one was the jazz cornetist Charles “Buddy” Bolden, and the other was the folk musician Jackson C. Frank. His first record was produced by Paul Simon, but his depression prevented him from pursuing a music career. “Horseshoe Crabs” is sung from Frank’s perspective. As well as being the first time I’ve heard of the songwriter, it contains what’s possibly my favorite line of 2015, which is beautiful, crude, sad and funny: “Woke from the dream and I was old/ Staring at the asscrack of dawn.”

Eagles of Death Metal – “I Love You All The Time”

The saying is that even bad press is good press, but no band wants the kind of publicity the Eagles of Death Metal received on November 13. Even sadder is the fact that the band is seriously passionate about and appreciative of their fans- I saw them play in Philadelphia this fall, and Jesse Hughes walked through the line of concert-goers waiting outside the venue, shaking hands and giving out hugs. “Now I know every one of you motherfuckers,” he proudly proclaimed later onstage. “I Love You All The Time” is actually a song about a man’s love for a woman despite her disinterest, but it happens to have a section of lyrics in French. After what happened at Paris’s Bataclan, and because the band has encouraged other artists to cover the song so they could donate the publishing rights to helping the victims, the line “I love you all the time” takes on a deeper meaning: the connection we have to music, no matter what else is going on in the world.

Girl Band – “Paul”

A lot of the lyrics on Girl Band’s Holding Hands With Jamie are indecipherable, though Dara Kiely’s delivery of the words contains more meaning than they ever could themselves. This is, after all, an album inspired by a psychotic episode Kiely experienced a few years ago. Though it may seem odd to include a song that is more understood in a more visceral way, one line from the middle of “Paul” has always stuck out: “How many bulbs does it take to screw a light in.” It sounds like the setup to a bad joke, but turn it around in your mind enough and it’s about the confusion and frustration of not being able to do something right. You’re trying and trying, but glass is falling down around you, and the light still won’t turn on. It’s kind of sad, yet somehow funny in the right state of mind, and that approach to such a heavy topic makes the whole album so amazing.

Shilpa Ray – “Burning Bride”

Burning brides after the deaths of their husbands is a banned Hindu practice, which was actually a scheme to ensure there was no one left for the husband’s wealth to go to except for the priests who carried out the ritual. On Shilpa Ray’s “Burning Bride,” the lyrics can also be applied to the oppression of women in modern times, challenging those who want to kill the spirit of a woman “Up dancing, ‘cause she’s wild” with the chilling line, “You’ll be lucky when she runs out of desire.”

Kurt Vile – “Pretty Pimpin”

It’s easy to lose yourself in Kurt Vile’s “b’lieve i’m goin down.” After all, you’re following the thoughts of a man who’s lost himself. This is clear from the first track, “Pretty Pimpin,” where though Kurt admits the man he sees in the mirror looks pretty pimpin’, he doesn’t recognize him. In this song, he’s lost track of time, and himself, but no one knows it but him: “He was always a thousand miles away while still standing in front of your face.”

Ava Luna – “Billz”

“I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love.” That’s a cute song, but not very practical, and obviously not an Ava Luna song. Because while romance is nice, it’s still just a distraction from buying groceries, paying rent and staying alive. Love does have its own payoff, but it takes a lot of work to get there, and it won’t keep your heat on: “I’ve made up my mind, I will find one small moment and I’ll text you/ And I’ll fact-check every reference that I make, learn the language to impress you/ Cause I’m yours, and if you tell me that you’re mine, you’re the one I’m getting next to/ But our love ain’t gonna pay my bills.”

Krill – “Torturer”

2015 was a big year for Boston’s Krill. And then they broke up. If you’ve ever found yourself crying your eyes out to dumb pop songs after a breakup, you know that when something major happens, even the sappiest of lyrics can suddenly seem to apply to you personally. Krill didn’t play dumb pop songs, and their lyrics weren’t sappy, but at their last show ever, every word somehow seemed to point to the band’s eventual end. This was most obvious with “It Ends”(“It ends/ Same way it begins/ On a whim”), and a little more subtle in “Torturer,” a track where Jonah Furman has a conversation with a mysterious character (“I asked, what did you come here for?/ And you said, whatever you need me for”) before wondering, “Is it time to go back inside?”

Mini Mansions – “Death Is A Girl”

The title of this song is a dark, mysterious statement, perfect to drop as a piece of advice and then walk away with no explanation. But the real gem in the song is the line “You gotta live in a world where there’s only one day.” Living your life as if actions don’t have consequences can be freeing, dangerous. And it can be hard to tell which: “Death is a girl and she’s only one dance away.”

Destroyer – “Times Square, Poison Season I”

For someone that lives in New York, taking the line “You could fall in love with Times Square” out of context seems like a jab, a suggestion that you’re inauthentic and easily impressed with shiny things. When Dan Bejar prefaces it with “You can follow a rose wherever it grows,” it’s more of a suggestion to lighten up a bit, and a reminder that if you look hard enough, you can find beauty almost anywhere. Even if it’s just in the people that recognize it where you don’t.