Why? - Alopecia

rootsandruins · Post by **rootsandruins** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:43 pm

Has anyone been listening to this album? I got it a week ago and haven't stopped listening since. The production is mindblowing. The arrangements seem almost choreographed to perfection. The multitrack vox leads and harmonies are blended so well and drum sounds are all pretty fantastic. Layers and layers. And the most insane lyrics I've heard in a long time. It's really inspiring. I want to know how it was done.

"In Berlin I saw
Two men fuck in the dark
corner of a basketball court.
Just a slight jangle of pocket change pulsing.

In the tourist part,
I lost 50 euros to the guy
with the walnut shells and the marble
and it really pissed me off
so Oooo I thought I'd go back to get my money
But all my homies warned me Oh no
Those gypsies probably got knives..."

(The Hollows)

SoulOfJonas · Post by **SoulOfJonas** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 11:57 pm

that's awesome. just a few days ago i forced my girlfriend and a few of my good buddies to listen to that very part of the song you quoted. i was like "listen to this song, now listen to this part, these lines ... IT'S FRICKIN INCREDIBLE! DAMMIT!" or some thing like that.

I'm going to see them this Saturday and I'm more than psyched. The next day I'm going to see Xiu Xiu. What an amazing weekend of inspiring, creative bands I'm gonna have.

-JV

thieves · Post by **thieves** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:44 am

My band is opening for these guys in Cleveland. I'm a bit intimidated/worried because we're just straight up indie pop, but hopefully it'll all work out. I played that exact part of that song for some guys in my car over the weekend. So good. The production has that boomy low-mid sound that I'm not too crazy about, but it's only a minor gripe. This band/album is one of the few out there that is making 'pop' music that I have a hard time describing to people.

chris harris · Post by **chris harris** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 10:37 am

I don't think that it's that much more advanced that "straight up indie pop"... they're just really good at it. And, their stuff is very "smart"...

Don't sweat opening for them. They're really great guys. Super tight band! I'll have to pick up the new cd.

thieves · Post by **thieves** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:28 am

yeah, i'm just a little concerned about the crowd. every time we play a show for a really 'hip' buzzed band, the crowds are just brutal

chris harris · Post by **chris harris** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:51 am

thieves wrote:yeah, i'm just a little concerned about the crowd. every time we play a show for a really 'hip' buzzed band, the crowds are just brutal

I've only been to the Grog Shop in Cleveland. but, it did seem like a tough crowd. There were no locals on the bill that night, though..

Good luck with your show!

rootsandruins · Post by **rootsandruins** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:28 pm

thieves wrote:yeah, i'm just a little concerned about the crowd. every time we play a show for a really 'hip' buzzed band, the crowds are just brutal

Just do a Cure cover and beat them to the punch.

thieves · Post by **thieves** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:09 am

There is a great two-part interview with Yoni from Why? that was posted on Pitchfork yesterday:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/f ... erview-why

The first interview goes into some of the production aspects... one thing that I sort of giggled at (especially after posting here for a few months) was this:

The engineer is an incredible engineer, but to get a rock engineer to make drums sound like that, real drums, you have to keep pushing-- "More drums. More. Yeah, more snare. More compression. More compression. More compression." He's like, "You're crazy. You're fucking crazy." But then you get the mix done, and they were like, "You were right. Sounds great, dude."

Also, they apparently recorded two albums around the time of Alopecia. The other is supposedly way sadder and more 'country.'

As for the show, it went really well. I spoke with some of the members briefly and they seemed to at least be polite about liking what we were going for. Nice guys, although Yoni is pretty much exactly like the interviews make him out to be... way introverted and (at least in cleveland) a live sound guy's worst nightmare.

Dj Mayonnaise · Post by **Dj Mayonnaise** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 2:36 pm

here's a good quality vid of them in MN

http://scheduletwo.com/video/why/the_hollows

thieves · Post by **thieves** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 5:55 pm

they're selling a cd-r of a 'live in the studio' set of the songs their doing on this tour, it sounds GREAT. if anyone has any of the details of the recording, i'd love to hear about them, especially since the recordings were apparently made less than a month ago and i'm already listening to mixed/mastered versions. some of the songs sound better than their album counterparts.

Gummy · Post by **Gummy** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 4:26 pm

Wow, Thanks. That stuff is great.

SoulOfJonas · Post by **SoulOfJonas** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 5:42 pm

thieves wrote:they're selling a cd-r of a 'live in the studio' set of the songs their doing on this tour, it sounds GREAT. if anyone has any of the details of the recording, i'd love to hear about them, especially since the recordings were apparently made less than a month ago and i'm already listening to mixed/mastered versions. some of the songs sound better than their album counterparts.

are they selling this CD-R at their shows now?!?

I'm going to see them tomorrow with Mount Eerie (The Microphones). As far as incredibly-creative-music-I-currently-can't-get-enough-of, the show tomorrow is gonna be a cream dream.

-JV

thieves · Post by **thieves** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 2:43 pm

SoulOfJonas wrote:
thieves wrote:they're selling a cd-r of a 'live in the studio' set of the songs their doing on this tour, it sounds GREAT. if anyone has any of the details of the recording, i'd love to hear about them, especially since the recordings were apparently made less than a month ago and i'm already listening to mixed/mastered versions. some of the songs sound better than their album counterparts.
are they selling this CD-R at their shows now?!?

I'm going to see them tomorrow with Mount Eerie (The Microphones). As far as incredibly-creative-music-I-currently-can't-get-enough-of, the show tomorrow is gonna be a cream dream.

-JV

yeah as far as i understand they have it on this leg of the tour. if you (or anyone else in this thread, for that matter) can't find it, send me a pm and i might be able to help you hear it.

chris harris · Post by **chris harris** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 3:04 pm

thieves wrote:way introverted and (at least in cleveland) a live sound guy's worst nightmare.

I actually had a pretty easy time with him (them). Of course, they were there with plenty of time to get a good soundcheck in. I'm kind of surprised that they're not touring with their own engineer at this point.

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