Freddie Gibbs

Freddie Gibbs "Murda On My Mind" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

hollAnd

Never heard of these guys, but this track is cool

BBU

All we DO is JUKE!

Crocodiles

Crocodiles make R&B music, if R&B bands were backed my Jesus and Mary Chain and drank a gallon of cough syrup before recording. This band is seriously great and everyone should check them out!

What have you all been up to? I know that you put out your first album - Summer of Hate - last year. And it looks like you have spent most of the early part of this year recording. How have those sessions gone? What can we expect? Are there any plans for touring later this year? If not a full tour, will there be shows around southern California?

Brandon: We took mid-December to March off to write our record. Neither of us are very good at writing much on tour, and since we were gone so much last year we needed a few months to get a record together. It still needs to be mixed, but we've finished recording it. We're going to start playing live again in late April, after we rehearse a new line up. We're going to play a couple shows around Southern California and then we're going to the UK and Spain in May. In June, we'll be doing a west coast tour with Dum Dum Girls. That's all we have set for now, but we'll be touring a lot again now that our record is done.

What would you guys list for influences? Its always fun describing the band to people who haven't heard of crocodiles because I am always tempted to describe it as Velvet Underground and Suicide had a baby and raised it to be Doo-Woop/Soul star. Which usually gets a lot of strange looks, so I just end up describing you all as awesome. Is that a goal though, to have deffinite hooks and melodies beneath some of the noise and grit? Because your songs have serious hooks and a catchiness that can not be ignored.

Brandon: Thanks for the nice description, that's very flattering. The melodies and hooks of the songs are definitely the most important part to us. Noisiness and weirdness are all cool but if the song underneath sucks, then the song sucks no matter what. I think bands like Suicide and Velvet Underground are very inspiring because at the very base of them, there are excellent pop songs on par with any famous "pop" songwriter's but they execute them in very clever and experimental ways. It's the best of both worlds. We really look up to that and strive for it.

How do you like the San Diego scene? From a slightly further north perception (Orange County) it seems like SD has a really cool scene, that is supportive of local music. Are there a lot of other local bands that you guys dig? I know that Wavves is from San Diego, and ignoring personal feelings about the publicity/backash that has engulfed him, has his success brought increased attention to the area?

Brandon: There are quite a few great bands in San Diego right now, more then there has been in a long time. Ale Mania, Heavy Hawaii, Beaters, and Nude Boy are some newer bands we're really enjoying.

Delorean - Stay Close

Janka Nabay

Sonnymoon

Sonnymoon make music to float down to Earth to. That’s the description they used on facebook and that is really all I can think of when I listen to their tunes. The mix stream of conscious Jazz vocals with some serious space beats.

So lets start with the basics: when and how did you all form?

We met a little over a year ago because we moved into the same apartment with a mutual friend. We started making music together almost immediately.

Who do you look to for inspiration?

On a micro scale we’re inspired by the people around us, some of our closest friends are filmmakers and artists in addition to musicians and its really exciting and inspiring to see their art develop and collaborate here and there. On a macro scale I think we’re inspired by artists and people in general who aren’t afraid to do their thing. There’s a billboard we saw in Austin recently that says “Keep art weird.” That’s inspiring.

On your facebook page you list of a bunch of rap producers from LA (J Dilla, Madlib, etc.) do you find LA's style of beats more inspiring?
What specifically attracts you to that sound? I am a huge J Dilla fan so I am always interested in hearing what people say. I can definitely hear the LA sound in the music and I love it.

D: I’m definitely a huge fan of that scene, but not because of any affiliation with LA or Detroit (where Dilla’s from). I liked Dilla first and gradually moved through different artists by association. There is definitely something to the music though. It doesn’t just sound good, it feels good. It feels fucking great. That’s why I like it.

How do you like Boston's scene?

D: What scene? Outside of a few of our friends, most of our connections seem to be through twitter or email in NYC, LA. The internet makes the world your scene in a way. But sadly nah I don’t feel like there’s that sense of community here for whatever it is you want to call our music. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of weird going on here. Maybe we just aren’t looking, but it always seems like we’re the weirdest band on the bill. Maybe we’ll start a scene.

A: There are a hefty amount of bands, singers, DJ’s, and everything in between in Boston, everybody wants a piece. Also, since the whole city is practically college students, there are a lot of “student bands.” It’s easy to get caught up in your own grind, but also easy to find a show if you want to see some music on a whim. There are a few collectives of musicians who meet every week and perform for/with each other, but these groups seem to be genre specific.

I am a student at BU, but feel like I can never find a cohesive Boston scene. I don't know if I am missing something or if I just don't know the right people. There seems to be a particular lack of groups putting out beat oriented music.

Agreed. We don’t really know of any other groups putting out beat oriented music in Boston, but we could be looking in the wrong places. It seems like almost every person who could be in their bedroom making beats is rehearsing a band whose members are in 10 other bands at the same time. The “traditional” band style seems huge in Boston.

When I listen to Sonnymoon, you guys remind me of a more lyric oriented LA sound. The beats and atmosphere would sound at home in a Flying Lotus set. Who produced the back tracks for the album? Was it a mutual collaboration or did one of you come in with a tape of this goodness?

D: Creatively, we both are 100% responsible for the beats/music/lyrics/everything. On the technical level though, I got cut from the vocal squad and Anna didn’t make the production team, either.

Anna your singing style reminds me a lot of old Jazz singers, are they of any inspiration?

A: My influences aren’t limited to one style, but yes, I am inspired by a few different jazz singers, mainly The Real Group and the amazing Sarah Vaughan, who actually didn’t consider herself a “jazz” singer even though that’s how she is labeled.

What inspired the lyrics behind the album? They are at once familiar, but also unique and not completely straight forward.

Observing other people and ourselves, we write prose mostly, stream of consciousness type stuff, dreams are a big resource for us. We try not to think about it too much.