Albums of Influence - Deltron's 3030

After the intro, this album kicks off with its title track "3030". Though this 8 minute track is clearly the highlight of the album, the rest of the songs still stack up pretty very well, and do a great job of telling the story that is "Deltron 3030". The concept album premise is that Del Tha Funky Homosapien finds himself 1000 years in the future, trying to navigate his way though evil government run cities and over-powerful corporations, while also battling to be the Galactic Rhyme Federation Champion.

Besides the whole "concept album" thing going on here, the most influential part of the album goes back to that same first track. "3030" is one of the only hip-hop songs I've ever heard that has real dynamic to it. The song changes and progresses as different samples and layers are added and taken away. This track manages to not get boring, not even for a second, throughout its 8 minute entirety.

I also just read the fantastic news that all three original members, Dan the Automator, Del, and Kid Koala, are making a sequel to Deltron 3030, entitled "Deltron 3030: Event II".

Download the album for free here, then anticipate the new one like crazy.





Other awesome albums by Del or Dan the Automator include Both Sides of the Brain, and the first Gorillaz album... although pretty much anything these guys do is amazing. (See Handsome Boy Modeling School, Hieroglyphics, Kool Keith's Doctor Octagonecologyst, etc...)

Albums of Influence - The Beatles' "Abbey Road"

The Beatles - Abbey Road

Everyone's heard of the Beatles before. I'm sure everyone's heard the Beatles as well. I think the first time I heard the Beatles was in Elementary school, when the entire class learned to sing "Yellow Submarine".
Abbey Road, however, was the first time I can remember that I actually listened to the Beatles.

I remember the first time I put it on, that first bass note and flanged vocals on "Come Together" were so magnetizing that I couldn't help but be sucked in to whatever else the album had to offer.

The most influential part of this album for me however, came after the flip. Nearly the entire second half of the album was blended together to create an epic 15 minute medley. This was the first time I had ever heard multiple songs, that all sound completely different, flow together seamlessly as if they had all been recorded in one take.

I've never been a huge Paul McCartney fan, but for the fact that he spent hours and days and weeks literally cutting up tape, and splicing it back together, completely without the assistance of Pro Tools, you've gotta give him props.
That, and he also invented sampling.


Download the entire album for free here.
Then make sure to head out and buy buy buy all the Beatles memorabilia you can possibly get your hands on.








Other great Beatles albums include Revolver, The White Album, and select songs from Sgt. Peppers.

Albums of Influence - Bike For Three's "More Heart Than Brain"

Bike for Three's "More Heart Than Brains"

I've always thought Buck 65 is creative and unique, but I was never really a fan(atic) of his work. I'd heard this song or that song, seen him play live (2nd best hip-hop show I've ever been to, falling right behind Wu-Tang's Raekwon), and had plenty a friend recommend one of his many albums to me, but I'd also always had a hard time getting deep into his work.

That all changed the moment I heard Bike for Three, a collaborative album between Belgium electro artist "Greetings From Tuskan", and Canada's own hip-hop (?) artist "Buck 65".

Buck has never been more emotionally raw, nor has his off-kilter rap style fit any piece of music more perfectly than it does on this electronic, yet fabulously musical, 15 track album.

With lines like "The homes we chose vs. the one that we imagined," there's almost more to what Buck isn't saying than what he is, lending your own mind back through a series of unchosen long-ago-possibilities of what could have been.

This album is exactly what hip-hop, a genre that's been churning out the same radio-friendly auto-tuned hit for the past 5 years, needs so badly. Bike for Three shows what hip hop could be if producers still cared about the music they were making, if rappers weren't solely driven by their desire for fame and fortune, and if consumers, my self included, dug past hip-hop's bland sludgy exterior that is mainstream rap more often.

Here's to hoping that this album gets all sorts of recognition, and wins every hip-hop award available this year, including any of the awards that our cash-in-hand-bribes and dark-alley-car-washings may have got us nominated for ourselves.
It's true. This album is amazing.

Download it for free here. Then rush out and catch Buck 65 live.






If you liked this album, make sure to buy Buck 65's "Situation".

Albums of Influence - Modest Mouse's "The Moon and Antarctica"

Modest Mouse's "The Moon and Antarctica"

"You can't have a favourite song on Dark Side of the Moon. You've got to accept it as a whole. You've got to listen to it in its entirety as a 'listening experience'."
I've heard more than one person, stoned out of their minds, say this about Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon".

That could just as easily be said about the Modest Mouse sonic masterpiece that is "The Moon and Antarctica". Although all of the songs do work on their own, the album works so well as a whole that it feels like you're doing it injustice to only listen to one or two songs at a time.

For a band that (at the time) only had 3 people in it, there are an amazing amount of layers on this record.
This was one of the first records I ever heard that made me think of combining multiple vocal takes onto one track. Or double-tracking guitars, while putting warm and heavy effects on one channel, while leaving the other raw and cold. This was the first record I ever heard that made me start experimenting sonically.

And with lyrics like:
"Well a 3rd had just been made, and we were swimming in the water/
Didn't know then, was it a son, was it a daughter?/
When it occurred to me that the animals are swimming/
Around in the water in the oceans in our bodies/
And another had been found, another ocean on the planet/
Given that our blood is just like the Atlantic/
And how"
It's hard to not start thinking about how our entire universe as we know it could be contained within a single cell of a single creature living in an infinitely larger universe. Or even that the blood in our bodies could just as easily be a whole other type of universe in itself millions of other creatures, infinitely smaller than yourself.

All this from a couple indie-punk-rockers from the mid-NorthWest.
And how.



Download the entire album for free here. If you dig it, buy their 'Moon' follow up album "Good News For People That Love Bad News". As well as a t-shirt. And a hat.



Other Modest Mouse album honourable mentions include, but are not limited to: Good News for People Who Like Bad News, The Lonesome Crowded West, and Building Nothing out of Something.

Albums of Influence - Atmosphere's "Lucy Ford"

This album was such a huge influence on me when I first heard it that it literally and completely changed the music I listened to, the people I hung out with, and the way I lived my life.
This album taught me that you don't need a "dope whip" or "bling"to meet girls, and that 50 Cent, despite having been shot 9 times, isn't really that cool.
This album is like the "Velvet Underground" of hip hop. It's so basic, and yet so captivating at the same time. It was the first record I ever heard that made me think "You know, I bet I could do this too..."


You can download the entire album for free here.
If you dig it, make sure to buy their next album, check out a show, or buy some Atmosphere merch.
Slug needs a new pool.

Here's Slug (the vocal half of Atmosphere) turning a threat into one of the best love songs ever written.


Other Atmosphere album honourable mentions include: Seven's Travels, Sad Clown Bad Dub II, and When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold.

An Interview with Dan Mangan about things...

I've been doing a lot of music-based 'research' lately.
By which I mean, I've been sitting on my lumpy and unforgiving couch, eating entirely too much cold pizza, sedating myself with anything and everything I can find, and listening to non-stop CBC Radio 3. Basically I'm trying to bring out my inner Brian Wilson, without really immersing myself in the whole 'being really good at music' thing.
On a positive note, after having heard what seems like an infinite amount of new independent Canadian artists on CBC, I've found a couple I've really taken a shine too.

Dan Mangan, pictured above, while not busy sugaring random people's coffee, makes really good music, and recently became one such artist.

When I first heard his song "Sold", I thought he sounded like a sadder, lonelier Barenaked Ladies, if the Barenaked Ladies had spent their entire music careers chain-smoking, and shouting at things.
That said, Dan Mangan isn't emo. Dan Mangan doesn't write cheesy songs about having a million dollars, and Dan Mangan totally prefers puppies with heads to puppies without heads.

Make sure to click on any of the above links, or this one*, to check out Dan's song "Sold".


Animal Nation: What is your favorite thing ever out of: Puppies Without Heads, Acid Rain, or Rainbows Made of Shades of Grey?

Dan Mangan - Puppies without heads - because at one point, they were puppies WITH heads, and those are really cute.

AN: If you could be anyone, ever, for a day, out of the following people, whom would you be, and why? Rambo in the middle of fighting off 50 machine gun clad jungle warriors with no weapons other than your bare Rambo hands, The Terminator while he’s slowly being lowered into hot lava while giving a thumbs up to John Conner, or Vince from the ShamWow infomercials, before he got his tongue bit off my a hooker, but after he smoked too much crystal meth.

DM:Definitely the Terminator - because there was glory in his sacrifice to the Connor family - and because he was rad.

AN: Going to the hospital rules. It’s Universally loved. Out of the following, what is your favorite reason for being at the hospital:
a) You’ve just had your pelvis run over and broken by a drunken police officer, and it was all his fault. You’re going to cash in huge, and the only downside is that your legs have been replaced by metal rods... above the penis.
b) It’s abortion day at the old abortion mill, and they’re handing out dead fetuses, and the Food Bank is closed, and you’re hungry.
or! c) You’ve got perfect health, and you’re driving a fancy car that totally attracts millions of ladies, but you’re going to visit your girlfriend, and she’s got AIDS, and somehow you don’t have it, but she’s definitely planning on forcing sex on you when you get there, and she’s got nice boobies, and you’re not going to be able to say ‘no’.

DM: What kind of blog is this again?

AN: Captain Planet rules. He's our hero! He's going to take pollution down to zero!
But what’s the deal with 'Heart'??!
Q'est-ce que fuck?
What would the 5th element be if it were up to Dan Mangan?
Earth, fire, wind, water, and ___________?

DM: Internet.

AN: Anything else you want to talk aboot?

DM: Nah, I'm good.

AN: Perfect, 'cause I've gotta take a dump.

*All links go to the same place, so don't bother trying anything tricky, wise-guy.


If you enjoyed this make sure to check out our interviews with other Vancouver musicians such as Billy the Kid, Ali Milner, or Josh Martinez.

Moka Only quits hip-hop?

Yesterday I heard Moka Only, 90's-00's underground hip-hop pioneer and sensation, was stepping down from the hip-hop... 'thing'... to focus on other projects.

I sent him a message wishing him well, and asking him if this was true, and this was his reply.

Animal Nation:

"
Moke!
I heard you're quitting the hop... Congratulations! (I think..?)
I just wanted to say thank you for being a huge inspiration! You made Swollen huge and famous, and you made those records so much more fun to listen to..
And thanks for letting us open that Whistler show for you 2 years ago at Crankworx!
That was a huge honor..
Hope you're off to bigger and better things!
Keep er easy,
-Steige
"

Moka replied:

" Thanks brother.. but don't beleeev it.. i will NEVER quit..no matter how crappy the industry gets.. i made a post sayin i quit hiphop but didnt mean quitting the music.. i meant im just not gonna be going throo the normal nettworks anymore.. hip hop promoters and all that.. all this rap shit.. man, its always a bunch of people rippin ya off and all that.. im fallin back in with my jazz doods and it works cus thats the kinda music i been doing all along.. dirty underground jazz hip hop.. but no, i wont stop.. you just gonna see me pop up in more unusual places. "

Even though I haven't popped in "Lime Green" or "Codename: Scorpion" for a while, it's still kind of sad to hear that one of my major influences in the past is stepping down.

Here's hoping that Moka has nothing but great things coming his way.
Thanks Moke.

-Animal Nation

Peak Season! October 19th premiere!

Hi!

There's a new MTV show revolving around the action and drama of 6 local "Whistlerites".. (someone that's lived in Whistler, BC, Canada for more than 3 days).. which will be airing on Oct. 19 on MTV Canada, as well as on MTV.ca
This show features lots of our friends, as well as music by Animal Nation, AS WELL AS a few guest appearances by Animal Nation, including parts of our performance from the 2009 World Ski and Snowboard Festival!

I also voiced the trailer, as can be seen here!

Make sure to check out all the excitement at the official Peak Season web site.

The show features plenty of super cute Whistler girls, and also features our good friend Dre Morel, who we interviewed a few months ago, and who MTV interviewed recently as well!

Pictured: Super Cute Whistler Girls!

From left to right:

Lauren Horton: The Wild Card - Lauren will punch you in the face, steal your boyfriend, and make you wish you were her, all at the same time.
Elle Hetherington: The Transplant- Elle is the typical Australia/Whistlerite that... well... I don't know Elle personally, but most Australian girls are sluts.
Steph Just: The Shredder / The Local - Born and bred Steph Just will do just about anything to get the gold, and go home with the prize money. Amazing rider, and even better humam being. Also good at getting in cat fights.
Amanda Scheller: Self described as "........" - I don't really know anything about Amanda. I've never met her. She used to go out with our friend Dre, but now she goes out with some dude with a pony tail...


Rad,
-Steige.

Animal Nation's "Party Animals"

Animal Nation's "Party Animals"!



This video was made by Blair Richmond of http://imperialpnd.com
This beat was made by Linus Stubbs - http://myspace.com/linusmuzic
This song is featured on Animal Nation's 3rd album - "Understanding More About Nothing Than Anybody Ever Thought Impossible or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Music"

Thank you very much!

Make sure to download the song and the album below, and Pay Whatever You Want.

Understanding ARTings!

Hi friends!

Oh! First off - The Party Animals video should be online by the end of the week!

But back to... Bandcamp.com, and more specifically http://animalnation.bandcamp.com, recently included the ability to download album art when you download an album from their site.
We've uploaded all the album art for both our new album "Understanding More About Nothing Than Anybody Ever Thought Impossible or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Music", as well as our previous EP, TimeZone.












The cover art for "Understanding..." was done by a Japanese artist named Taka Sudo - Tifdyl.com, and the booklet cartoons were drawn by Kent Osborne, who used to be one of the main writers for the Sponge Bob Square Pants TV show and movie!












"Understanding..." is a 'pay what you want' download, so if you haven`t already, make sure to head over to http://animalnation.bandcamp.com right now to cop that. If you've already downloaded the album, but didn't get the art, and you want the art, search in your email for 'bandcamp', and re-download the album, or if you deleted the email, head back over to http://animalnation.bandcamp.com now!












Thank you!

Hope you enjoy the artings. They are quite fun to us!

-Steige.

Brandon Semenuk, an Interview with Freerider Extraordinaire

I never had a younger brother growing up. I never had anyone to blame for taking the last cookie out of the cookie jar, or anyone to take the rap when Mom's fine China accidentally ended up all over the hardwood floor.
Fortunately for me, I did have a best friend, and next door neighbour, that had a younger brother.
Unfortunately for my best friend's little brother, he would be an easy target for all our teenage angst.
Fortunately for my best friend's little brother, AKA Brandon Semenuk, he grew up way tougher, stronger, and infinitely more handsome than both myself and his older brother. He also gets way more girls than us, drives around in a car worth more than my life, and gets paid to travel around the world to do what he loves.
Did I mention that he's only 17 years old?

Steige: What's your favorite thing about CrankWorx?

Brandon Semenuk: Seeing and riding with all my friends for almost 2 weeks.

S: What's your least favorite thing about CrankWorx?

BS: Big line up's!

S: What is your ultimate fantasy pizza? Extra points for putting an entire meal on a pizza. (ie - A bacon and eggs with a side of hash browns pizza)

BS: Pizza with Bacon, ham, 3 cheeses, BBQ sauce and a side of yam fries.

S: That sounds amazing. I think you should sell that one to Fat Tony's! Besides pizza money, what motivates you to launch over 40 foot gaps and land on hard packed dirt on a machine that weighs less than the computer I'm writing this on, and could easily crumple in half at any time?

BS: It's fun and I like the challenge.

S: What's going through your head right before you 360 tail-whip off said jumps?

BS: Just focusing on the trick and making sure I land it.

S: If the sky wasn't blue, what color would it be, and why?

BS: Brown 'cause the reflection of the dirt.

S: Then you could ride in the sky too! In a town full of amazing talent and 20 000 bikes that all cost more than 6 months worth of rent, what do you do to stand out?

BS: I don't really try to stand out. I just ride my bike for fun, and it's cool that my riding has stood out as much as it has.

S: Which breakfast-cereal-spokesperson/mascot/animal/monster can you relate to most? Are there any breakfast cereals you eat strictly based on whoever's on the front of the box?

BS: Tony the Tiger, 'cause I also believe practice makes perfect. But I always buy Honey Nut Cheerio's.

S: You've eaten those forever! I remember your Mom would lose her sh-- whenever she came home and we'd eaten all the Cheerio's! What's your career highlight to date?

BS: - 1st Crankworx Colorado 2008 and 2009 - 3rd Crankworx Whistler 2007 and 2008 - 1st Red Bull Rampage - 1st Claymore Challenge

S: What's the best piece of advice you can give to up and coming riders that want their own pro model seat and ultra rad car?

BS: Do what you love.

S: Perfect! 'Cause I loooove drinkin'! What's your very first memory involving biking?

BS: My brother pushing me around a grass berm in our backyard on his beat old Specialized Hard Rock.

S: I think one of my first memories of you riding is when you got your first adult size bike. It was at least a thousand sizes too big for you, and you could barely reach the pedals, and you were still keeping up to your brother and me on all the trails.
Imagine you find out that everything you've ever known, your entire life as you know it, has all been but a dream. Would you want to wake up if you didn't know what was on the other side, and if you knew you couldn't come back here?

BS: Tough call. If I could go with other people I probably would, but don't think I would do it by myself.

S: Hey! Just like that one song by that one band that wrote a bunch of songs about lots of different stuff and things!
Here's a picture of Brandon winning last week's CrankWorx in Colorado. Seventeen years old, and he's already carrying around huge bottles of champagne!
I love it!

Sebastian Hochstein and The Pillow.

Sebastian Hochstein is our friend from Germany. Sebastian Hochstein is part of the production group Nic & Jaq. Sebastian Hochstein is also very good for Animal Nation's motivation as will soon be revealed in the 5 track EP we've been working on during the last two weeks he's been hanging around in Canada!
We also went to the Aquarium yesterday!!!
Rock.

Here's a song called "The Pillow", which, surprisingly, is a song about a pillow, and will be featured on our new, as of yet untitled, EP.
(If you have any name suggestions send 'em in!)
So far we've got:
"Basti Made Me Do It"
"The Thirsty Boys"
"General Electric Brand Dishwasher Detergent Doesn't Really Do It For Me Like It Used To"




Steige: Between the cigarette burns and the red wine stains, our couch cushions have definitely seen better days. Do you prefer sleeping on the side covered in burn holes, or the side that’s permanently red-wined?

Basti: You guys should know you made me sleep on the ground right next to your washing mashine...so don’t bother me with those couch questions. I need to see my chiropracter.

S: If you died tomorrow, and believed in re-incarnation today, and were brought back to life as a cushion, which type of cushion or pillow would you be, and why? (ie-throw pillow, couch cushion, fancy decorative pillow, sleeping pillow, etc.)

B: Doesn’t really matter as long as Tyler West wouldn’t have his girl done on me!

S: Tell me about your worst couch surfing adventure? Was it because of the shoddy quality of the pillows?

B: It was that night that Reid had (way) too many wildcats and died on the sofa next to me...

Triple dolphin jump. No big deal...

S: Would you rather your sleeping pillows be gangster pillows or emo pillows? Do you prefer them hard or soft?

B: I prefer them soft, so i think it needs to be an emo pillow, eh?

S: Since you’re a vegitarian, would you prefer if I didn’t call it a cow-ch? Should I instead maybe call it a ‘squash’, or a ‘zuchini...ch’?

B: Call it falafel...ch, dude.

S: You’ve spent the last 2 weeks sleeping on the floor next to our couch. This, right now, is the first time that I’ve told you that our couch folds out into a bed. How does this make you feel?

B: See question 1), bastard!


If you enjoyed this, make sure to stay tuned for our collaboration EP between Animal Nation and Sebastian Hochstein (Nic & Jaq) coming out in a week or two! Also, make sure to check out our Interview with Nic & Jaq!!

ROBAANKS, An interview with...

Do you ever wake up in the morning with your mind stuck on a certain subject? Maybe you've just opened your eyes, and for the rest of your day you can't think of anything other than going on a vacation to Thailand. Or possibly you can't get it out of your head that, even though you already have a fully functioning bicyclette, you need a newer, lighter, faster one, with way more horns on it.
I think either that, or my extreme fascination of Rob Banks' bathroom habits, led to the questions in this interview.
Why would anyone want to know what Rob does with his toe nail clippings in the winter? Probably for the exact same reason you'd want to go to Thailand for vacation.
It's hot.

Steige: When was the last time you had a shower?

ROBAANKS: 20 minutes ago

S: Face cloth, or straight up soap to skin?

RB: Wash cloths are for girls.

S: Where do you clip your toe nails, and what do you do with them once they're no longer attached to your feet??

RB: In the winter I clip in the living room or the washroom. In the washroom they go directly into the toilet. In the living room they often go onto a plate or into a bowl and then in the garbage. In the summer I clip on my back steps and the nails stay outside.

S: Do you always wash your hands after you make pee?

RB: If I'm in a washroom, yes.

S: Okay, so I have a... friend... who has a pretty serious problem when it comes to biting my finger nails... his finger nails.... Why do you figure this is, and what's your advice for someone trying to quit?

RB: Way back when, I used to do it just 'cuz I was to lazy to clip 'em. START GROOMING THEM SHITS! Girls notice that kind of thing, and for good reason too.

S: Alright! So you've got yourself a date with the cutest girl in all of Whistler, when BAM! you realize that your underarms aren't as fresh as they should be. It's 8:45, all the stores are closed, and you're meeting your lady friend at 9pm sharp! What's your plan of action?

RB: Chill. There's tons of public washrooms all over town. Get your ass in one. Preferably one with paper toweling. If not, toilet paper will work in a pinch. Take that shirt right off, you don't want water marks on that M/F. Damp your pits, damp some folded towel, put soap on that towel, scrub pits, splash water up those pits, dry with dry towel, put your shirt back on, go get some son!

S: Easy as that! Anything else you'd like to mention? Maybe you'd like to tell us what you normally think about during the 2 minutes you spend brushing your teeth in the morning?

RB: When I'm brushing my teeth, that's my main focus. Floss, brush, mouthwash. Every day. Bad breath is THE best way to be shunned by fine females. I know for sure I am never taking no halitosis girl home. I do not care how hot she is. If the mouth smells bad.......

S: Then she's bound to not have a trust fund set up for her. I hear ya.


If you enjoyed this make sure to check out other "Bank" interviews in our Interview With Feet Banks!

Also, make sure to check out the ROBAANKS' video interview with everydaywhistler.ca about why he doesn't dig pasta stir sticks.

RIGHT HERE!!!!

Carmen and Camille, an Interview with...

Carmen and Camille, much like burnt waffles, are kind of ridiculously hot. Alternatively, unlike burnt waffles, Carmen and Camille have written an album full of hits that have been featured everywhere from The Hills, to Billboard, to Elle Magazine, to my headphones, to your speakers.
That being said, when it comes to Carmen and Camille vs. a stack burnt waffles, what would you rather eat?

Steige: What are you wearing right now?

Carmen: Well the honest answer is jeans, a t-shirt and sandals but that's not very exciting now is it?

S: Skimpy lingerie and stilettos?? You dog, you! Ok ok... on a more serious note... my girlfriend likes girls, by which I mean, I’m trying to convince my girlfriend to like girls. How would Carmen and Camille go about convincing a girl that kissing other girls is fun?

Camille: I'm sure once she tried it there would be no going back. Lesbians really are the smartest people in the world.. but getting her to try it is the hard part I guess. Good luck with that.

Steige: What’s been the best or worst or craziest or most standout live show you've played so far?

Carmen: The best live show for me was probably in Egypt... we were there for a military tour and we performed outdoors for a couple hundred soldiers in the middle of nowhere at an army base. It was very surreal. And the people were so supportive, they let the soldiers stay out an extra hour after so we could sign stuff and meet people. Good times. That was also the show though that Camille kept electrocuting herself on her mic cause something wasn't grounded properly. That got fixed eventually lol.

Steige: If you were the biggest person in the world, ever, like Paul Bunyun sized, what would be the first thing you would do?

Camille: I think I would join a circus and travel the world... Being a carnie might be fun.

Steige: What about if you were the smallest person ever? Like, mouse sized.

Carmen: I would record an album with my little mouse voice which would obviously sell millions cause no ones doing that right now.

Steige: On a scale of 1 – 10, what’s your favorite number?

C & C: Definitely 2...

Steige: Anything else you’d like to mention?

C & C: Tell your girlfriend to call us ;)

Steige: Wow. Alright.


If you enjoyed this make sure to check out more interviews with more really really good looking people by clicking here, here, here, here, or here.

Off to see the Wizard! The wonderful Wizard of Oz-ttawa!

I wrote an article for our local news rag, The Pique NewsMag, about our trip to Ottawa for Canada Day, and New York for the 4th of July.
I was limited to 600 words, so I had to skip over quite a few things...
I could have easily written 2000 on Stacy London's house alone!
Our good friend Pat captured a lot of it on video, and is putting the footage together now, so we should have something of that sort up soon too.

"
Four states, three provinces, two Independence Days, countless beverages, four border crossings, two band members, and one passport. This is Animal Nation's recollection of the past seven days.
"
Click here to read the rest of the article!

---

Make sure to download our latest album, "Understanding More About Nothing Than Anybody Ever Thought Impossible or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Music" if you haven't already done so! Or do it even if you already have! Download 5 copies! Download it onto your friend's computer, and put it on her iPod!

Armadillo Slim, an interview with.

Micheal and I just finished set one of two for our "Canada Day in Ottawa" extravaganza. Our crowd was an interesting combination of people young and old, from 8-80... with no one in between. (Except Ms. C-Chord! Thank you muchly!) We've got three hours to kill before our next set, so we're going to drink drink drink our faces off, hope for some people our age to show up, and wind up blackout just in case our crowd is a gaggle of kids and sagging skin again. While these beers are going quickly down the hatch I'm also going to force Mike to answer the questions that I sent him 6 months ago.

Steige: Listen: The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire, and for some reason we're all out of water, so we have no choice but to let the motherf--ker burn... You've only got time to grab one thing out of the house. What's not going down in flames?

Armadillo Slim: It's definitely the bag of weed from the kitchen drawer. But then it would just go down in flames anyways the instant I escaped my burning house after I realize that I left my girlfriend in there.

S: What's your favorite song on the new album? What was your favorite song to make? Why?

AS: I really don't have one particular favorite song on the album. There's a different favorite for different moods because of the variety of the CD.

S: What's the most annoying instrument we have?

AS: The typewriter.

S: Off the top of your head, what's been the highlight of your entire music career thus far?

AS: Probably this years main stage performance at the Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival. Good crowd, nice weather, cold brews, and loose morals. Always a good time. But we are literally en route to Ottawa to rock a show for the Canada Day Celebrations as I write this interview. I'm scared to think about how much fun we're about to have there.

S: Hate is great. Give me a quick list of things you hate and why you hate them...

AS: Insomnia - It really cuts in to my sleeping time!
Auto-tune - Makes me hate the song or artist the instant I hear it.
Black licorice flavored anything - It makes me not be friends with my so-called taste 'buds'.
Interviews - I'd rather save my energy for funner things. And yes, I do know that 'funner' isn't a word. But I figure it's funner than saying 'more fun'. Which sounds kind of square.
The Border - I am a dual citizen and can't be denied entrance into Canada or the U.S. regardless of my situation. I am used to putting on the face at work and on stage but for some reason (don't insert reason why here) I don't like the feeling of doing something wrong when I'm not. We are about to cross the border tomorrow and I don't have a passport and we have my little brothers rental car = almost cavity searched cavities. Not cool. And I find it weird that I am answering your questions as you are reading my answers over my shoulder while we are in the same room. But hey, Happy Canada Day there bud.

S: Your shoulders pop out all the time. They've popped out right before going on stage, they've popped out while performing, they've even popped out while you've been asleep. If you had the choice would you rather a) have your shoulders magically healed and sealed so they never pop out again, or b) have the ability to morph into a veloci raptor on command, but still have bad shoulders that pop out quite frequently?

AS: I'd rather have my shoulders healed. I hear that raptors have a hard time picking up chicks and if I learned anything from Jurassic Park 1 and 2, dinosaurs are extinct.

S: Alright, you've gotta kill one, fuck one, and marry one.
a) Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears.

AS: a) I would marry, kill, and fuck all three of them, in that order, too. But if I had to choose: kill Britney, fuck Lindsay, and marry Paris.

S: b) Barbara Walters, Martha Stewart, the late Nicole Simpson. (Can't kill someone that's already dead)

AS: b) I'd bang Martha over Barbara.

S: c) Your girlfriend, your best friend, yourself.

AS: c) I'd kill my best friend (with kindness) marry my girlfriend, and fuck myself.

S: Which CD would people be most surprised to learn that you own?

AS: Sock Hop hits from the 60's. I also have almost every Barry Manilow record in my vinyl collection.

S: When are you happiest?

AS: When I'm dreaming of rainbows and unicorns and happy little people with gumdrop smiles. And the smiles are edible and taste like blueberry cream pie, so you can eat the smiles off the little people and they can't even say anything about it because their mouths are gone. That's when I'm the happiest.

S: What is the closest you've come to death?

AS: In a car accident with my friend, Reid. I was eating pizza in the back seat and when I got out of the car I thought that the pizza sauce was blood. It pretty much changed my life.

S: What song would you like played at your funeral?

AS: Soul Station, by myself.

S: Perfect.
Our second show, by the way, went amazingly, and ended with thundershowers and hale storms that decided to stop by for the last 20 seconds of our set, and left us completely soaked.
Awesome.


If you enjoyed this make sure to check out our Interview with ME! our Interview with an Empty Plastic Bucket, as well as an Interview DJ Dredi did with Animal Nation a while ago.

Billy the Kid, an interview with.

It's raining, it's pouring, and all the golfers are stuck indoors... which is awesome, because now I get to go run around on the golf course, and rip into my harmonica as loud as I want, and no grey-haired, trouser-wearing, collared-shirted old Slicey McHackersons are gonna get all "You keep that down, you quick-tipped little whipper-snapper!" while pumping their golf club in the air, and furling their brows, and sipping on their tumbler of scotch, and they're out living it up, and the only time I'm allowed on the golf course is when it's raining really really hard, and.. umm... here's an interview I did with Vancouver's Billy the Kid.

Billy the Kid is the first person to send us answers in the form of pictures and video, and I think you're going to think it's pretty fun. That being said, Billy is basically a nerd's wet-dream-come-to-life, and I'm pretty sure she could have sent us death threats and we would have considered them 'fun'.
Make sure to check out her myspace page NOW! to listen to her super catchy tunes, and perv on see more of her photos.

1. What’s your favorite television show theme song?



2. How does your own ‘Billy the Kid’ theme song go?

Varying degrees of the following featuring different lyrics:



3. You’ve got DIY music ethics, you’ve got the nerdy-yet-totally-hot librarian look going for you. How many thousand times a day do people ask you if you’re the newer, younger, better lookinger Lisa Loeb?



4. Which of your tattoos is your favorite? Why?



He's my lucky star. Every time something good happens, I thank my lucky star.

5. Which of your tattoos has the worst story behind it?

I got my first tattoo at 16 years old in a kitchen.

6. Who’s your favorite cat/mouse combo?



7. What’s your favorite thing ever, ever?

This guy:



8. What’s your favorite breakfast cereal? Who’s your favorite breakfast cereal mascot?




9. Anything else you’d like to mention?

http://www.billythekidonline.com ;)



If you enjoyed this, make sure to read up on other incredibly beautiful/talented people in our interviews with Paige Harley, Ali Milner, DJ Laura C-Chord, and myself.

Blair Richmond, an interview with.

FEET BANKS, an interview with.

"Hey Mike, what do I say about Feet Banks for the intro to his interview?"
"I don't know. Ask him, 'if we killed him, would we be defeating him? Or his family? Or... the World??'"
"Uhhh... alright."

Steige: “Feet Banks” are what I call my shoes. If you were a pair of shoes, what kind of shoes would you be, and why?

Feet: When I was a kid we didn’t have much money and my mom used to buy me runners from the Saan in squeamish. Real pieces of shit that were made totally from plastic and had no ankle support. All the other kids made fun of my “Saan Specials” and I blew my ankle almost every gym class. My first pair of socially acceptable shoes were black Nike hightops and 16years later I still have ‘em so I would have to say I’d be those suckers because they go well with 80’s hair metal and, if you walk the walk, will still get you laid in Kamloops, BC.

S: Hearing the word 'Saan' makes me cringe. I find people are usually either in love with, or disgusted by feet. Are you a foot fan or foe?

F: I’ve done some weird shit with feet in hot tubs but I really only love my own feet. I love them so much that when I go hiking with a heavy backpack I use those telescopic ski poles to take some of the weight of my feet. Makes me look like a euro but I don’t give a shit, it takes like a tonne off your feet over the course of a day.

S: If you had the opportunity, and you knew there were to be no repercussions, whom would you throw a shoe at, and why?

F: Candace Bergen, that actress who was in that shitty show Murphy Brown. I’ve never met her or anything but every time I see her I’d like to heave a big steel-toed workboot in her face. Also I wouldn’t mine drive-by shoe-ing everyone in Whistler that is letting greed take over their sense of community, but that would be most of the town, and they don’t have that many shoes at the Re-use-it center. Now that I think about it I’d like slap a couple of the Re-use it staff around with a pair of tap-dance shoes too, those fuckers piss me off more often than not.

S: What's the deal with sandles and socks? Why is there such a stigma surrounding the combination of the two? What do you secretly, or not so secretly, tell people you catch walking around with the sock/sandle combo?

F: Generally I am all for nonconformity but combining Sandals and socks is like walking around with a sign on your back that says “I haven’t been laid since my mom used to dress me.”
The purpose of sandals is to let your feet breath. Socks don’t allow that. Socks are prisons for your feet and your soul. Your soul and over all well being is totally linked to your feet. Foot Reflexology is not all hippy-dippy shit. I heard there are some foot masseuses that can even kill a person just by rubbing and pressing the right sequence of spots on a foot.
When I see someone with socks and sandals I mostly just laugh because their socks are gonna get extra dirty and then they’ll be the ones having to do more laundry. Doing laundry is one of the worst things ever, the stupid mundane repetitiveness of it.

S: I'm doing laundry right now! Err... How many feet tall are you?

F: 6 feet 4 inches if you use my own actual feet to measure me. My feet are only 11 inches long. Test your high school math skills out.

S: What's the gnarliest thing you've got going on with your own feet?

F: I can pull my little toenail off pretty much anytime I want and it doesn’t hurt. Also, since it is summer my feet are always dirty, I live on a farm and they just get real dirty and unless I sit down in the shower and chip away at ‘em with some sort of lava rock there is not much I can do about it.

S: What color socks do you prefer?

F: I like white socks and I like a brand new pair each time. My buddy Calder taught me that. Big bags of white socks are cheap so you just keep a bag in the drawer and grab a fresh pair whenever you want. Before the hippies start giving me shit I’d like to point out that I donate my used-once socks to charity. I also have some fancy socks for when you have to wear a suit or if you have black shoes or whatever. The fancy ones are never white.

S: Anything else you want to say? Foot or non-foot related?

F: “A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer.” Mitch Hedburg said that.
“Fuck with me, I’ll put a foot in your ass.” Ice Cube said that.
“In the winter, never trust a woman with warm feet in bed, she’s probably a dude.” I said that.

S: My feet are always freezing. I think I've got bad flow.

F: Oh.

S: Yeah.


If you enjoyed this make sure to check out our Interview with an Empty Bucket! Or if you want to read a really really long interview, check out our Short Story Interview with Sponge Bob artist Kent Osborne!

Artist Interview w. Arne Gutmann

Arne is the man. The Gutmann. I don't really know what the heck a Gutmann is, but I assume it's Dutch or something, and probably means "Good Man", or, like, "Totally Rad Dude That Takes Killer Photos of Fat Dumps".
Probably.


Steige: Why do you take photos of your poop?

Arne: Cuz almost 20 years ago I saw one of my poops and said "I gotta photograph that! It looks like the letter ....." Since that time I have paid a little more attention to that unusual thing called "poo."

S: Do you have to practice to make your poop into shapes and letters, or is it all just left up to chance?

A: Nope, it's just like freakin' magic. I never know. It's always a fresh bowl and what happens is up to chance. I am sure diet helps a little. Steak and pizza. Yum.

S: What are the best and worst things anyone has ever said about one of your poop pictures? Has anyone ever told you that your photo looks like crap, and then ran off giggling, only to come back later and buy two? Cause I would like to think that’s what I would do. And I would definitely get a B and an X, because those seem like they would be the trickiest to make.

A: Most people chuckle, some think it is just wrong. I only remember one dude at a show and he was really ticked off, I was like sorry you don't like it, then just don't look at it. He wasn't having anything to do with it and was almost confrontational. He was also very drunk. That's what happens at art shows some times and I am prepared for that.

S: Which letters were the trickiest to make?

A: So far they have to be: r, a, h, y.

S: Can you make a ‘poop me’?

A: Hey man, I havn't even got passed the alphabet! Maybe with a special diet and a lot of practice, though I highly doubt it. Sorry. Besides, that would be the weirdest portrait ever. Period.

S: How the heck do you take a photo of your poop without getting any tiolet paper in the shot?

A: That's a very interesting question......

S: Anything else you’d like to mention? Poop or non poop related...

A: Yeah, one time I had set up 12, 4x6 black and white prints that spelled out the name of the art group I am in. It was right over the cheese and munchie platters. Some people didn't even notice, of course some people did and laughed or... Some people thought it was so funny that they themselves would step back to watch other people's reactions.
In closing, always have your camera with you, because you never know when you might need it in the most unusual way. Literally! Digital is nice for this application, though not to forget analog, ohhh sweet analog. Not burton analog but non-digital. cheers and happy shooting.

S: Awesome. Make sure to check out more of Arne Gutmann at his site boardstars.com.
Nice.

If you enjoyed this make sure to check out another photo-nerd Interview With Paige Harley, or our Interview with a Couple German Guys, Nic & Jaq!