NATION OCEAN

Hey everyone. I just wanted to let you all know about Breakdown Book Collective. They have great open space up stairs to hang out at, a book/video library downstairs, local art and concerts. So check out the website and stop on by sometime!

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I have been obsessively listening to YACHT for the past two weeks. His liquid jive as I would call it had seeped into my ears and reminded me of when I first listened to Self or Beck, being totally blown away with doing something entirely new to old and busted sounds. A music prodigy like Beck Hanson or Matt Mahaffey, Jona Bechtolt has been making and playing music live practically his whole life. His instant connection to the Portland scene launched him into world tours with the likes of K Records alumni. Now after releasing an LP entitled Super Warren MMIV, he is touring the US with another indie prodigy Adrian Orange aka THANKSGIVING. After this tour is ending they are both heading to Europe separately, then Jona will be touring the US again with The Blow.

I got a chance to hang out with the guys for a day when they played at Breakdown Collective here in Denver. The show was amazing ~ complete with audience hums, handclaps, foot stomps and howls. Afterward we went out to eat at Pete's Kitchen with the whole crew crunched in my car. They talked about coming from a huge thunderstorm in Lawrence, KS, their tour in Europe and if they had a show secured the next night in Provo. They seemed so well traveled and humble about their experiences.

Back at the house they were staying at for the night I got to talk to Jona a little bit. Adrian was checking his e-mail and Meghan was reading an art book.

NATE: I just think you have a really unique background in how you came about in making music; does it feel like a natural evolution for you?

JONA: Yeah I guess, I didnt make any conscious steps of doing something differently I guess. It feels like everything makes sense.

Nate: It just seems like with your type of music and your age especially and just coming up to touring like this. The music evolution from like when you and your brother played on a drum machine. Then the progress from then to now you using laptop music, which is really interesting to me.

Jona: I never really thought that I would be using computers to be making music because when I started playing music it was drums. I was so passionate about emulating Dave Grohl of Nirvana. Like then I never saw myself making music on a computer but I always loved doing other stuff on computers like using Printshop and Newsroom and other old programs on Apple 2. So I mean if I look back it does make sense.

Nate: Well talking about the computer, do you feel that a lot of the music is moving towards laptop production?

Jona: I dont know but I guess it is a really cheap and easy resource and since tape machines and most equipment are more expensive with computers getting faster and cheaper and software is more widely available Im sure music will go in that direction whether it is a kid recording a guitar into a computer and leaving it or doing stuff to it or a kid making beats.

Nate: Yeah, well tell me what was your evolution in going from drums to programmed beats because it seems hard to want to switch. Or was it more experimental?

Jona: Hmm, well Im just trying to think of my very first time. (Pauses) I guess when I was in a band with my brother, we were a pop-punk band called Allegro, he worked at a music store when we first started playing in the band together and he would pirate software from the store. So that was the very first time I used a computer to do music stuff. . . Oh wait! Thats not true, when I was in seventh grade I bought this video stuff because I got really into video at the time for this computer class and with the video software came this audio program called Sound Edit 16 which is still mildly popular like the band Matmos uses exclusively. What I would do is say things backwards and then process them to play forwards. So yeah, that was the first time using the computer for music.

Nate: Yeah

Jona: Then later with the software my brother pirated we would make CDRs on our 1 Speed CDR Burner. We started with acoustic instruments recording it and chopping it up a little bit but mostly pretty straight ahead rock stuff. Then all the way before that when I was in fifth grade and used a drum machine in this rap group called Airheadz. I got really into the drum machine and then spring forward again to 1997 there was a program called Rebirth which was an emulator of an 808 drum machine and a 303 baseline and since I knew how to use physical drum machines I really got into programming stuff with that program. After doing that I got really interested in the idea of making stuff on the computer so then I searched around for all different kinds of software and tired everything I read about or heard about. It got more fun as I went along and deeper into programming as I went along.

Nate: What are you using now?

Jona: Im using a mix of a bunch of different stuff. Like ProTools, Live, Reason, Max MSP, Peak, Photoshop, Safari, Mail, Transmit.

Nate: So really anything on a Mac

Jona: Yeah, always a Mac. (Laughs)

Nate: It seems with iPods it really revolutionized how people are performing. With seeing bands five to ten years ago to now and how everything is more processed. I remember just seeing Beans live with The Unicorns and he was just rapping over prerecorded beats and even backing vocals on his iPod.

Jona: I really like Beans and his band Anti Pop Consortium; I was just listening to them today in the car.

Nate: Oh nice.

Jona: Yeah, my friend that I toured with last fall, his bands called Lucky Dragons, they are from Providence, but we played a show with him in Ashville NC and he played his show just from his iPod because his computer crashed on him.

Nate: I see more bands pushing towards this genre, like Mouse on Mars among others. Where do you want to go with your sound?

Jona: I would like to record my new stuff with nice microphones, because up till now I’ve only used crappy equipment. But then on the EP I just did with The Blow, for one of the songs I recorded in Olympia at K Records. They have a really nice studio and nice microphones so I got to use those and I was really excited about how it sounded. I will always use acoustic instruments to get uh, feelings and that kind of sound. A lot of the stuff I’ve been making recently is like 30 or 40 seconds of being in a room with someone talking and maybe playing one or two notes on the piano and chop that up to make a whole song out of those few seconds. I feel like I want to do that more.

Nate: Are you consciously putting together album length material?

Jona: Well for the label Adrians on Marriage Records, Im doing an EP. It is pretty much done and he wanted to send it off before we went on this tour together. But I think I work the best when Im on tour. At least the last couple of months have felt like that, so I wanted to work on those songs more and when we are done I’ll give them back to them. And in a couple of months I will have a CD or Vinyl or something like that.

Nate: That reminds of I was always interested in K Records and the relationship you guys have with that label and those bands. Where most of them arent attached to just one label anymore. Is that something you are interested in, I mean working with and having a relationship with just one label?

Jona: I just want to work with my friends.

Nate: Yeah it just seems like a natural fit for you and K Records with you recording with The Microphones / Mt. Eerie, Mirah & The Blow. Its just a great record company.

Jona: Yeah I have always loved that record label a lot. I was really excited to do something for them.

Nate: But your more focusing on your music then where you want to put it.

Jona: Yeah totally.

Nate: Hmm, you’ve been touring for what seems like forever.

Jona: (laughs) Yeah Ive been touring since I was thirteen, and there are some year gaps there but yeah, pretty much since then.

Nate: What is your motivation for that. I mean how does a thirteen year old do that? (Laughs)

Jona: Well I love traveling. I dont know which started first, touring or traveling. But I really love it a lot, I love meeting new people and seeing new places Ive never been before. And playing shows is my favorite thing to do in the world, I think, yeah thats true. So the more places I can do that the better.

Nate: So how does family fit into this?

Jona: Well I have two older brothers that really turned me onto to music. First it started with really early hip hop like Run DMC and old LL Cool J. At the same time it was the punk stuff like early Vandals and Bad Brains, so with that they totally got me interested in music. We would skateboard together and they would play records really loud. And in high school my brother started playing in a band and they would practice at our house so I would just sit and watch them. I become so interested in playing music and when they would leave I would go up to the drum set and hit it. Thats when I decided I want to play drums and my brother was really encouraging and helpful.

Nate: Cool.

Jona: Then I got a drum set two years later for Christmas and he helped me set them up and his advice was to listen to my favorite records and try to play what you here and try to make up your own stuff. So I think my brothers have everything to do with why I play music.

Nate: So how did that go from playing music with your family into touring the world?

Jona: My middle brother started a techno club in my hometown of Astoria. In the summer it was really popular because there was a vacation town just thirty minutes away so kids would come down. But then kids stop coming and he got disillusioned and stopped doing it. So I started doing rock shows there and then bands from all over started calling me to play there and thats how I met Calvin and Phil and all of the K people. I just did things in the community and helping people out and the favor just comes right back.

Nate: So where do you see yourself in five years? If that is a question (laughs)

Jona: (laughs) Oh I dont know. I have tours planned for the next couple of months. But after that I dont know. (To Adrian checking his e-mail next to me) Did he ask you that?

ADRIAN: What?

Jona: What are you going to be doing in five years?

Adrian: Oh, no he didn’t, but I hope to have a garden.

Jona: Yeah that is cool, I want a garden, and I hope my cat is still alive. She’s really old, shes seventeen. (To Meghan reading next to Jona) What about you, what do you want to do in five years. Weird right?

Nate: Isnt it?

Jona: Like think about what you were doing five years ago.

MEGHAN: I dont think I want to know what I’m doing five years from now.

Jona: Yeah, neither do I. But I want to have a garden.

***download YACHT - I Love a Computer***

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Last Minute Annoucement!

From Breakdown Book Collective

Tuesday, August 24th7:30pm at Breakdown

Music: Thanksgiving The long awaited return of the northwest's best not-yet-twenty-year-old folkster: Thanksgiving. If you loved the Microphones show -- and you know you did -- you'll be blown away by him. Yacht and Bad Weather California will also be playing. This is the show you'll brag to your friends that you were at in five years when he's an indie superstar.

Phil Elverum's New Label

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Guster
Universal Lending Pavilion, Denver, CO
Sun, Sep 5, 2004 8:00 PM

Beastie Boys
Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO
Thu, Sep 9, 2004 7:30 PM

Godsmack
City Auditorium, Colorado Springs, CO
Thu, Sep 9, 2004 8:00 PM

The Black Keys
The Cuts
Gothic Theatre Englewood, CO
Wed, Sep 15, 8:00 PM

Ministry
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult
Ogden Theatre, Denver, CO
Fri, Sep 17, 7:30 pm

Further Seems Forever
The Kicks
Brandston
BlueBird Theater, Denver, CO
Tue, Sep 21, 7:00 pm

Mouse On Mars
Ratatat
Junior Boys
BlueBird Theater, Denver, CO
Tue, Sep 28, 8:00 pm

The Pixies
University of Denver
Magness Arena, Denver, CO
Thu, Sep 30, 2004 08:00 PM

& From the Larimer Lounge Newsletter
October Shows:

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FRI, OCT 01, 21+
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PBR's Great American Beef Fest After Party featuring...
BOBBY BARE JR.
$8.00 9:00 PM
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SAT, OCT 02, ALL AGES
------------------------------------
Don't miss this one!! Recently came through with The Hives...
SAHARA HOTNIGHTS
$10.00 7:00 PM
------------------------------------
TUE, OCT 05, ALL AGES
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Super cool Mush Records night!!
HER SPACE HOLIDAY
DAEDELUS
NEOTROPIC
OCTAVIUS
$10.00 7:00 PM
------------------------------------
WED, OCT 06, 21+
------------------------------------
Radio 1190 Presents...
THE LIBERTINES
RADIO 4
$12.00 9:00 PM
------------------------------------
FRI, OCT 08, ALL AGES
------------------------------------
Amazing show!! aT CLUB 156!! Radio 1190 and The Onion Presents Sub Pop
Records
THE HELIO SEQUENCE
ROGUE WAVE
LOW FLYING OWLS
$9.00 7:00 PM
------------------------------------
FRI, OCT 08, 21+
------------------------------------
Radio 1190 Presents Barsuk Records...
JESSE SYKES AND THE SWEET HEREAFTER
PORLOLO
$9.00 9:00 PM
------------------------------------
SAT, OCT 09, 21+
------------------------------------
FIERY FURNANCES
LOW FLYING OWLS
$14.00 9:00 PM
------------------------------------
SUN, OCT 10, 21+
------------------------------------
YEAR FUTURE
CRIMSON HAYBAILER
$7.00 9:00 PM
------------------------------------
MON, OCT 11, 21+
------------------------------------
Featuring Shannon Selberg, frontman of THE COWS!!
HEROINE SHEIKS
THE AGENCY (EX-BOSS 302)
$8.00 9:00 PM
------------------------------------
THU, OCT 14, 21+
------------------------------------
New album 'Till The Living End' out now!!! Just off tour with
Motorhead!!
ZEKE
THE SIGN OFFS
CRIMSON HAYBAILER
$10.00 9:00 PM
------------------------------------
FRI, OCT 15, 21+
------------------------------------
PILOT TO GUNNER
SWISS ARMY
$7.00 9:00 PM
------------------------------------
SAT, OCT 16, 21+
------------------------------------
HELMET
TOTIMOSHI
$15.00 8:00 PM

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I had a great conversation with Scott from Larimer Lounge last week. It is great to have them as our first sponsor here at CIAMC. We plan on having sponsored nights at Larimer and helping them out with their street team. We will try to move our Friday Night Live over there as well as interviewing some of the bands to post on here. Things are coming together for us and this is just the start!

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It's been a busy week for me. On Sunday night friends and I had our weekly romp at The Church. Tuesday night we were 4th row center at The Curiosa Festival, which was awesome. Thursday night we went out to Charlies and played pool and listened to some country music.

& Tonight we are going to our sponsored night at Larimer Lounge; and tonight's line up sounds amazing. AC Newman & Rogue Wave! 10 bucks to get in, so if you're interested come join us. It's going to be a great show!

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Nation Ocean is a site created to communicate about music. Nation Ocean likes outer space, internet bands, peanut butter on a plastic spoon and interviewing objects.. and sometimes spikey humans. Enjoy!

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