BLACK MOUNTAIN "The swimming hole looks inviting under the blue sky... Come back at dusk, however, and the pond turns black -- as dark as death -- or on the contrary, a restful dark, a dark to savor. Take it as you will." - Edward Hoagland There is no simple life, and these are not simple times. The mythical days of clearer heads, of moral certainty, and of men and women acting with resolute spirit are behind us (if those times ever existed). Black Mountain, from Vancouver, British Columbia, write, perform and record music that speaks (and sings) to this realization: that solutions are rarely simple, that the world is as complex as it is ambiguous, and that music sprinkled with an inoculating dose of madness may well be the Pied Piper that takes us all back into the primordial mountain, where our hearts can be made steady and our minds can be set free. Black Mountain is Matthew Camirand, Stephen McBean, Jeremy Schmidt, Amber Webber and Joshua Wells. Their debut self-titled record, like a space probe built of erector set parts and transmitting secret and arcane messages to earth by string, charts territories unknown yet remains grounded by the roots of classic rock and roll. It is easy to discern these roots: Black Sabbath, the Velvet Underground, the Rolling Stones, Animals-era Pink Floyd, Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin and Can. Stephen McBean's vocals are a smoother, bluesier amalgam of the voices of Neil Young, Mick Jagger and perhaps a James Brown loaded on cough syrup. Amber Webber's vocals are something other-worldly and, by itself, almost incomparable. When their voices intertwine, the combination brings to mind the potency and chemistry of Richard and Linda Thompson singing together on Shoot Out The Lights, or of Meat Loaf and Ellen Foley howling together on Bat Out Of Hell. Musical comparisons aside, the Black Mountain full-length is one part protest song, one part pop-cultural commentary, and one part sick-groove-rock casserole peppered with mesmerizing ballads and intoxicating ditties. "Modern Music" is the lead-off hitter and counts its way to the imposing and riff-rife "Don't Run Our Hearts Around". Immediately thereafter, the sludge-rock masterpiece "Druganaut" establishes the fecund heart and tone of the record. And just when you think that things can't get any better, the songs "No Hits" and "Heart of Snow" are injected into your consciousness, clearly demonstrating that this band has no creative bounds. Four of the five members of Black Mountain work as social workers in Vancouver's Downtown East Side. Much like the similarly-named Black Mountain College of artists, poets and musicians who felt that a strong liberal education had to be holistic -- happening inside and outside the classroom and not removed from a communal setting -- the members of Black Mountain feel that their art and their music and the problems of the real world, which they experience daily in their working life, cannot be made distinct from one another. If "the personal is political" -- a persevering and still resonant slogan of the women's movement of the 1960's -- then, regardless of the level of their lyrical or visual specificity, art and music are always political. The Black Mountain record demonstrates this with flying colors. The music contained therein contributes to a belief that is an essential first step in making the world a less crazy place: madness is not a contagion that can be simply amputated. Madness is an intrinsic part of all of us, an indelible part of the fiber of our being. Black Mountain are also five good friends who affectionately consider themselves as part of the Black Mountain Army, a loosely defined family of friends in the Vancouver area who endeavor to have good times while collaborating on art and music. The five of them are former or present members of The Pink Mountaintops, Blood Meridian, Jerk With A Bomb, the Black Halos, Dream On Dreary, Sinoia Caves, and Orphan. Black Mountain's debut full-length was recorded in the winter and spring of 2004 at the Argyle Hotel and The Hive by Colin Stewart and Black Mountain. A video by Heather Trawick of the song "Druganaut" is included on the CD version of the record. Black Mountain have also released a 12-inch single (on Jagjaguwar), including an extended mix of "Druganaut" on the A-side. This single has just recently been re-released in the CD format with some added material. The band's currently sexploitative counterpart The Pink Mountaintops released their self-titled debut record (on Jagjaguwar as well) in the summer of 2004 and will be touring later this year in anticipation of some upcoming recordings for Jagjaguwar. Released January 18, 2005. Re-introduced in the U.S. August 9, 2005. Re-introduced in the U.K. July 18. 2005. Introduction By Travis Keller Questions By Jon Weston and Evan Weiss Design By Vishal Agarwala Black Mountain hail from up north in lovely Vancouver, BC Canada. Another little nugget of info I’d like you to know is that they’ve made one of the best albums so far this year (it’s out on Jagjaguwar Records). They drew from classic influences as The Stones. Black Sabbath, The Velvet Underground, Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Neil Young and even a little bit of the king of soul himself… James Brown. Yet they still managed to whip it all up into something modern that they can call their own. I’ll tell you what, this shit’s got a groove that we’ve been digging on man! Digging on it in a way that we needed some fucking answers outta these dudes. So we sent Evan (from Wires On Fire) and his good buddy Jon down to their show at the Echo here in Los Angeles to hang out with Stephen and Matt and get some fucking answers out of them. Here’s what went down. Oh and Matt, you’re not getting you’re shirt back buddy. Jon: Introduce yourselves and tell us what instruments you guys play in the band… Stephen: Steve, Guitar. Matt: Matt, I play bass. Amber sings, Josh plays drums, and Jeremy plays keyboards but he’s not here. Jon: You guys are part of a collective, the Black Mountain Army, can you explain what exactly that is? And what are your goals as a collective? Matt: There are no goals, it’s not really anything but a bunch of drunks in Vancouver who live within two blocks of each other and are creative and try and include each other in their creativity. Its kind of gotten made up to be this like Food Not Bombs, live in a big house kind of bullshit, which it isn’t, and I just want to set that record straight because its not. Evan: That’s good. How many people are part of this “collective” Matt: It’s open ended, its just like whoever we include in our thing, whether it be visual projections while were playing, a friend who made us a video or like who came and played on the record. Stephen:Weed Dealers. Matt:Weed Dealers, of course. Jon: Yea pot forever bro! How did you all meet and come together to form Black Mountain? Stephen: Amber’s my sister, we were separated at birth, different father, same mother, but then we met later on, and then I met Matt and Josh in Ottawa at a gig. Matt: And now Josh is dating Amber, and now Stephen is dating Amber’s twin sister. Jon: That’s fuckin incest! Evan: Which makes him fucked up! Stephen: haha, yea, its only a half sister though man, it’s more like a cousin thing. Evan: So wait let me get this straight, your going out with your half sister? Stephen: It ain’t by blood though man Evan: It ain’t by blood, haha. Everyone: Laughs Jon: What’s up with you guys and Mountains? Black Mountain and Pink Mountaintops, is there any significance in the band names? Matt: Well, Pink Mountaintops are tits. Evan: What about on a Black Women? Stephen: Black Mountain is like a resin kind of Mountain, it’s like a Mountain full of hash. It’s all about Hash, Mountains and tits, haha Matt:haha Evan: That’s fuckin awesome. Jon: What’s the difference between Pink Mountaintops and Black Mountain? Matt: Just the circumstance and the time of the recordings. There’s not really any difference, its pretty much the same people playing on both the records, its just like a thing where Black Mountain had four months off, so Stephen made these songs that had a theme for Pink Mountaintops. The record label loved it and wanted to put it out but it was just like a total accident and now it has become two different things. But really it’s just the same amount of people making the same songs. Its just kind of two different entities and it just has to stay that way from now on. Evan: The aesthetics on the Black Mountain and Pink Mountaintops records share a similar aesthetic, both with the mountains on the cover, same font, and similar layout. Is it important that you guys sort of keep it the same on each of the records, like something consistent? Matt:The records actually match up, if you put them side by side its actually the same mountain. That was obviously a conscious decision by all of us. Evan: So wait, which band came first? Matt: It was just the weird kind of thing where they were both happening at the same time. The record label wanted to put out Pink Mountaintops first and then the Black Mountain record. Evan: Do you guys ever play Pink Mountaintops songs live as Black Mountain? Matt: No no. Stephen: No, never. Evan: That’s because they are two separate entities? Matt: Yea, basically its two different vibes of a Pink Mountaintops show and a Black Mountain show, even though you could probably play them and people wouldn’t know the difference, the shows in Vancouver are so drastically different its crazy. Evan: Is that because of the theme of sexuality on the Pink Mountaintops record? Matt: yea like people go nuts when it’s like that…. Stephen: It’s like Circle Jerks and Black Mountain is like fuck I duno, stoner jerks. Evan: haha, Is there a certain message that’s different with both bands which is why it is important to keep it separate? Matt: Pink Mountaintops is more care free and spontaneous and like “fuck it”. It’s more like a dance party in Vancouver when Pink Mountaintops plays live. It’s like a circle pit with people stage diving and people dog piling on top of each other, like its Syracuse in 1991 or something. In a Black Mountain show it’s a little more subdued and a bit more focused, whereas Pink Mountaintops is just like a basement house party but like at a bar you know? Jon: Sounds cool, do you guys enjoy touring the US? Matt: Yea I guess, I mean I would rather be touring Europe, but what are you going to do? Evan: How about Canada? Stephen: Canada has no cities really; it’s got like eight cities really to play, whereas the US isn’t like that. Its just really all people you know, I don’t really think of it as like where someone is from, I like going to cities and meeting people. Some cities suck and have shitty food and some cities rule, have good weed and have like fuckin rad times. Doesn’t matter if its fuckin Helsinki or fuckin San Diego. Jon: Do you guys have any good tour stories from this last tour you did? Matt: We stayed in Tempe, Arizona, and we played a record store and there was like twenty people there and we said to the crowd “If someone could put us up that would be rad,” and this guy came up to us and said “Dudes, I’m Canadian you can come stay with me, I love Canadians and I miss them.” And we told him cool thanks. He was like this jock guy and we followed him back to his house, this like mansion that was overlooking Tempe. The we saw that he had a photograph of him and his wife posing with the Stanley Cup, turns out he played with the Detroit Red Wings when they won the Stanley Cup against Vancouver, he plays for the Phoenix Coyotes, an NHL hockey player but he’s a huge Black Mountain fan and he’s huge music fan period, he has thousands and thousands of CDS, and he’s a total encyclopedia of rock especially underground stuff. He’s totally into it, he turned out to be the coolest guy we’ve ever met and he totally took us in and treated us really well. Jon: What’s your favorite place to play? Matt: I like Chicago just because the city has so much character, its beautiful and has lots of great bands. Stephen: Brooklyn’s great, Oakland, San Francisco, I don’t know I mean sometimes you forget where you are so you just remember faces and shit so its like the place you know that has that dude with the like cross tattoo on his forehead, is like my favorite place to play I mean I don’t know what city that is, haha, but it’s a way to remember it. Matt: Yea I mean sometimes it will be like that city sucked but then it will rule next time. Jon: What’s your least favorite place to play? Matt: Detroit, they should burn it down again, it’s awful. Jon: What records have you guys been rocking while you have been on tour? Matt: It’s all Wu – Tang man, the Iron Flag album, that record is awesome. Jon: What about the classic “Enter the 36 Chambers”? Matt: Yeah but I mean how many times can you listen to it? I mean it’s a classic but you know. Jon: Anything else besides the Wu Tang Clan? Stephen: David Cross and the Team America Soundtrack. Matt: We try and listen to stuff that will get us through a long drive, the common misconception is that we listen to a lot of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, which we love, but we don’t listen to it because when you play loud rock music the last thing I want to listen to in the van between the shows is loud rock music, we want to listen to other stuff. We listen to mostly Wu – Tang Clan, pretty much any Ghost Face Killa records, will play those to death. We heard actually the GZA played here last night, actually they said this was his left over beer, this is “GZABeer” that were drinking. I took a shit on that fuckin toilet where GZA shat. Jon: Haha yea rad man, do all the Canadian bands try to stay connected? You guys friends with the Constantines, Death From Above 1979, Sum 41, Evaporators, DOA, etc? Matt: Yea, you can’t help it, because over the years if you grow up in Canada like no matter what coast your from, you will end up being associated with those bands. It’s so fucked up… Stephen: I am not associated with Sum 41 in any way at all. Matt: Ok, well I’ve met them and I know people in all those bands, and Hot Hot Heat we play with them and were friends with them. On the east coast there will be The Arcade Fire and I went to high school with the drummer, and has much as I hate to perpetuate the downtown Canada joke, it is like that it, it is so fucking coast-to-coast, it is so small with bands. I grew up on the east coast, so I totally know those people and we all went to high school together and then its like people eventually get their respect in their bands, people get it at different times but you always know them. Stephen grew up in the Island and the Hot Hot Heat guys are from there, so that’s how it is. Jon: Have you ever met Tom Green? Matt:I went to high school with Tom Green. Jon: No fucking way? Matt: I was younger than him, so he didn’t give me the time of day but my best friend in high school, his brother was Tom Green’s best friend, and we were like the younger kids who they didn’t even pay attention to cause we were like three or four years younger. Tom Green was always around when I was in high school, even when the cameras weren’t around he was a fuckin weirdo. Jon: What about those dudes from that movie “Strange Brew”? Matt: That’s a little older than me, my Dad probably knew them. Jon: Do you think there is a difference between the Canadian music scene and the US? Matt: The only difference I can see is that it’s a little more overly saturated down here. In Los Angeles for insistence, I wouldn’t want to be from here because how can you even make a mark in this town, there’s so much. There’s probably so many good bands that don’t even get noticed and there’s obviously so much fuckin garbage that doesn’t get noticed. There are obviously a million great bands here that probably will never get noticed but if they were from lets say Cleveland they probably would have no trouble at all. Stephen: That’s why a band like Nickelback can make it in Canada because they deserve it and their fuckin rad you know, they can rock out. Matt: haha, I just want to make sure people realize there was “sarcasm” on that one, haha. Jon: What’s the best live performance you guys have ever seen? Matt: In the last ten years it would have to be for sure Up in Smoke Tour with Snoop and Dr. Dre. Then lets see, Fugazi on the In on the Kill Taker tour, Bad Brains on the I Against I tour, and All on the Trailblazer tour. Stephen: Black Flag and The Meat Puppets. Evan: What year was that? Stephen: 1985 Evan: I was born in 85. Matt and Stephen: hahaha. Jon: Do you guys eat a lot of back bacon? Stephen: As much as we can get, as much as we can kill on the road. Jon: Is there a concept to the Black Mountain album? Any themes to it? Stephen: Shit, I don’t know man, Fuckin don’t find a mouse in your beer. Jon: What’s the difference between a Mountie and a cop? Stephen: a horse. Matt: My dad is a Mountie. Stephen: The thing with Mounties is they tend to get shot if they creep on something, but a cop you don’t fuck around with. But Mounties their hat will blow off and they will be distracted and you fuckin cap their ass Matt: Easy buddy, my dad is a Mountie. Everyone:haha Jon: Do you guys call Mounties “pigs”? Matt: Not to my dads face. Jon: In the linear notes of the album it says that Stephen McBean’s writes all the music, is that correct? Stephen: I write the guitar riffs and words and then we smoke weed and add plicks and pops and boom booms to them and shit. Jon: So you guys just jam and come up with some shit then? Matt: We jam for so long sometimes, that its like fuck what did we start with and its like two hours later and then its like fuck there was so many great ideas in the last two hours and will never remember any of them. There’s like ten songs in two hours and their all gone because were so stoned that were just like we don’t remember anything. Evan: So you take up a riff and then you bring it in and everyone starts killing it till you figure out what you want? Matt: Yea…. Evan: You guys should record that shit. Matt: Yea, were going to get a mini disc recorder or a ghetto blaster, one of those old ones with a condenser microphone on it and then were going to be in business. Jon: What’s your favorite track on the record and why? Matt: Mine is Set Us Free, because I just think that the tempo of it and the groove of the bass and the drums, being the bass player of course I just love it, I think its just so awesome. There’s nothing other than that, I like the lyrics and stuff too, but I just really like the tempo of it and the way it moves and rolls along, I love playing it and will never get bored it. Stephen: I don’t know, I haven’t listened to the record in a long time. Probably live I like playing Set Us Free, No Satisfaction, but yea sure those ones are good, but I don’t know cause I really havn’t listened to the record in a long time. Jon: What’s in the future for Black Mountain? What do you guys have planned? Stephen: Black Mountain 2 Matt: Were going to Europe in June for three weeks, and Australia in August. Jon: You touring with anyone? Doing those shows with anyone specifically? Matt: No, were going to do some shows in Europe with Magnolia Electric, its like this Songs: Ohio offshoot, were on the same label so were going to be playing some shows together I think. Other than that I think we are going by ourselves. Then were going to try and record over the summer maybe. Jon: Top 5 records of all time. Matt: Bruce Springstein – Nebraska Neurosis – Enemy of the Sun Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Pick any record I don’t care they’re all great. Wu – Tang Clan – Enter the 36 Chambers John Phillips – The Wolf King of LA. Stephen: Meat Puppets – II Rudimentary Peni – Death Church Richard Harris – The Love Album Black Flag – My War (Side 2) Slayer – Reign In Blood Jon: Any closing thoughts or anything you want the kids out there to know about you. Matt: Travis, I want that Guns N’ Roses shirt back.