Serfs - Marijuana Mom + Exclusive Interview

Serfs

Not long ago, I came across a band from Charlotte, NC on Youtube. It was the band Serfs and their video and single Marijuana Mom. I couldn't just watch the video once - it actually turned into at least a dozen rewinds the first time. The video itself - superfresh and full of color, nakedness and energy ... the song - a juggernaut of that same energy, an incessant guitar riff and lead singer Phil Pucci's raucous vocals make this one a winner.

I had to find out more about Serfs so I reached out to them and lined up an interview:

Who is in the band / who plays what / and how did you come together as a band?

 I'm Phil and I play guitar and sing. Nicholas Holman plays drums, Patrick Doherty plays bass and David Scanlon plays guitar. Nicholas has been travelling in Southeast Asia this year and Alex Ruiz has been filling in. He also plays drums in It Looks Sad and Couches. 

When I listen to your music, I hear influences from Foo Fighters to Sonic Youth to My Bloody Valentine; in my mind .... who are some bands that have inspired you? 

All four of us are definitely influenced by Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. We'd probably be quicker to cite Sonic Youth though. Sonic Youth are one of those classic bands that we all agree on. I love My Bloody Valentine to death but I feel like if I tell people we sound like them, we are pigeonholing ourselves and they will expect something very specific. And then they might see us and get upset that we're not shoegaze as fuck, riding our tremolos on every chord or whatever. Another band from the shoegaze genre that I think we identify with more are Swirlies.They have such great guitar tones and their sound is so expansive.

What is your definition of success as a band?

I think about it the same way I think about my own success as an individual in society. It's likely I'll never find financial success -- certainly not from playing music. There are bands on hot indie labels, selling out theaters and living well below the poverty line. So I'd prefer to think of success as being happy with what I'm doing. If I could make a living playing music, that would be good enough for me

How supportive is the local scene in Charlotte?

Charlotte is very supportive of us. We have a nice, growing music community. I've been playing in bands for twelve years but it wasn't until I started Serfs a few years ago that I felt like I was truly part of the scene. I have the honor of calling some of my favorite musicians my friends. My only gripe about the music scene is that I wish more people would start bands. I go to shows at least two or three times a week and I can't get enough of them.

You once played as an Interpol cover band - what other bands would you like to cover?  

We did that for an annual Halloween show at The Milestone here in town last year. This year I think we are going to cover Joy Division, which I guess is an obvious natural regression for us. We used to talk about covering bands a lot but this year we've been so focused on writing our first full-length that we haven't thought too much about it. I want to cover Blondie at a show sometime.

How has the music business changed since you started playing music? 

I started playing music in 2000 when I was 14. I think that was around the peak of Napster's popularity, before it was shut down and changed over to a legit subscription service. So when I was in high school, I bought CDs AND downloaded music illegally. Those are the pivotal years in a person's life, too, so I was soaking in music any way I could get it. It was fun. After high school, it was 2004 and downloading music illegally became so incredibly easy that I was just putting all my music on an iPod. I missed owning physical copies of music for so many reasons. And I kept hearing about a new record store in town called Lunchbox that sold mostly vinyl. So I got on a vinyl kick that never really ended. Nowadays I use Spotify to find new music and buy records that I really like. I'm 100% legit now, so get off my back, feds.

Let's talk about Marijuana Mom for a bit. I've watched the video at least 3 dozen times and I can't quite make out all the lyrics, which I actually like - but I imagine the song is about a hot milf who comes to the club with the best weed. The potency of the pot along with her hotness makes her the object of affection for everyone there - male and female ... or something along those lines. Am I close at all? 

Hahaha, that is pretty funny. I think I will tell people that whenever they ask about the song from now on. 

The video looks like it was a lot of fun to make. I'm guessing these are all friends of the band? And the ending reminds me of a skate video I saw once.

The video was very fun to make. We basically hung out and drank beer and had a good time. I heard our songs more times than I would have ever cared to. During most of the shots where we are dancing around or crowd surfing, we weren't listening to Marijuana Mom, we were listening to random rap songs. Three people in particular came together to make the video happen - Blake Raynor, who shot, directed and edited the video, Christine Rebich, who did a lot of fashion design for the shoot, and Nicholas Holman, our drummer, who rallied to get all our friends there to participate. I think the video captures the spirit of the song really well.

Anything else you want to add?

The only thing I can think to add is that we are currently crowd funding our debut LP via indiegogo: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/serfs-make-an-album 

Thanks so much for taking the time to interview me and feature Serfs on your awesome site.

-------------------------------------------------

Here is some more great music from Serfs:

http://serfs.bandcamp.com/

and be sure to follow them on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/SerfsUSA

No Boats

Sorrow

Greetings fellow e-citizens! It's been awhile since I've posted, but some new tunes I've come across recently have propelled me back into blogging action. Sorrow is a UK-based producer from Bristol, Britain. His productions are immensely unique, and get plenty of replays on my computer.

The first track of his I came across is called "Through the Night"

He also just released an LP this year, entitled Dreamstone:

The entire LP is solid, but the tracks that stood out to me the most were these four:

Supernova:

Maeles:

Moodswing

Dreamstone ft. Co Ma

Enjoy! Hope the cold weather isn't cramping your style :D

A+F

STREAMING RADIO SPOTLIGHT :: Sanctum.fm

Sanctum.fm is a Detroit based online streaming radio station, pumping out the best in Electronic music. You can tune in anytime at: http://stream.sanctum.fm:8060/listen.m3u

I first met Sanctum.fm's Adam Krikorian at a Burner event in Chicago in 2011. I had the chance to interview him recently about Sanctum.fm and the scene in general.

Check it out below -

Thanks for doing this ... so first of all, how long has Sanctum.fm been on the air?
It's my pleasure! We've been on the air since April 20th, 2011.

Cool, what motivated you to start a streaming radio site? and I just noticed the 4/20 reference!
Well, for starters my family has worked in radio since before I was born so it was one of those things that always felt really comfortable to be a part of. I've always felt that the future of broadcasting is online and that the real way to bring people what they want is to bypass the standard, over-glamorized nonsense that the existing industry benefits from. So I felt like, considering the immense wealth of talent our Detroit scene has, why not give that scene a voice?

Barrel~dEM started in May 2011, coincidence? Actually, meeting you was an inspiration for me to start blogging. I agree that Detroit has a ton of talent ... have you ever been involved with promoting events in Detroit or elsewhere?
Really? That's really great to hear, man. The night we met, I was really blown away by the kindness exhibited to myself and my small band of Detroiters by the local Chi-Town scene. Very cool crowd. To answer your question, I have actually never been involved with promoting or throwing events in the city. Or really anywhere. I've always been a stay-at-home kinda guy, more opting to enjoy the music than the party. But meeting the local Burning Man community in the Metro Detroit area pulled me right out of my shell! I couldn't help but get myself involved!

Yeah, that was a very memorable night for me as well. Who else is involved with running Sanctum.fm?
We have three of us that run most of the station. I act as station head (read: first to blame, hehe), we have John Bowman as our web director and we have Jason McCombs as a technical adviser/show planning. Basically the crew is the three of us, plus my lovely girlfriend who we have deemed our "security fairy" (she runs our door and regulates on spunions). It's a small crew.

"Security fairy" eh, I need to get me one of those! I know that your music tastes are all over the map, like myself ... but can you give us a few of your favorite artists / dj's right now?
I'm telling you, find yourself a lady with the guts to yell at your show's patrons and you're in business! As for music I'm into right now, I'd say I'm the most taken by the forays into what's being most commonly referred to as "future garage" as well as "turbofunk". If I were to pick specific people, I'd say Birdee, NaZaretH, D3adl1ne, mr. Beeb, Hoodsex, Reset!, Justin Martin, Earsley...man, I could do this all night.
Can I just send you a 50 page list? haha

You can send me music anytime! I crave it like a dope fiend craves heroin. We've both seen dubstep and trap music get popular in a big way. What do you think will be the next big genre to come out of EDM?
Well, I HOPE we finally get to that point where we can embrace the collective need for all these sub-genres to blend together! I think as far as emerging genres, we haven't seen the beginning of what the scene is capable of. I don't even want to try and guess where it'll head next. I suspect it'll be an amalgamation of what we all already dig. I'd LOVE to see more drum and bass (I keep hearing rumors that jungle is coming back!) and obviously I'd like to see more 2-step/Garage (because I play the bejesus out of it). But there's really no way to tell and I genuinely love surprises!

Well, it's a fact that dubstep is an amalgamation (love that word, btw) of drum n bass and dub music and trap is a blend of trance and rap. Maybe we'll see the emergence of fechno (folk and techno) or a whole genre of Gaga based music ... lol. I'd like to see Garage music get big again. Who knows where Moombahton or Glitch will lead to? Anything else you want to add before we wrap up here?
Definitely! I also highly suggest JPOD the beat chef if you're into that folk-steppy biz. As for closing commentary - I'd like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to share with your readers what we're all about. It's a privilege to be a part of the local scene in Detroit as well as the global scene online. We love what we do and love being able to share it with the world. If you're curious about us and want to learn more, get at us online both at our website (www.sanctum.fm) and/or on the usual social media outlets. Also: remember that we are ALWAYS on at sanctum.fm/listen

Thank you Adam!

****************************************************************

You can listen to Sanctum.fm on your Android device by downloading A Online Radio and searching for Sanctum.fm

Please, please show some love and go support these guys via Paypal.

http://www.sanctum.fm
https://twitter.com/sanctumfm
https://www.facebook.com/sanctum.fm

No Boats

The Eyes

this little nugget of 60s garage came floating out of J's laptop this afternoon, and it tickled me, so I thought I'd share.