2010 Artist Survey: JB Townsend of Crystal Stilts.
Dec 10, 2010
Web Exclusive
For Under the Radar’s 8th annual Artist Survey we emailed some of our favorite artists a few questions relating to 2010. Pick up a copy of Under the Radar’s Year End issue for interviews with: The Antlers, Bon Iver, Caribou, Club 8, Delphic, Rose Elinor Dougall, Gayngs, Hot Chip, Lost in the Trees, Love is All, The Love Language, Mogwai, of Montreal, Okkervil River, Yoko Ono, Owen Pallett, Plants and Animals, Mark Ronson, Superchunk, Tame Impala, Vampire Weekend, Sharon Van Etten, and Vivian Girls. Here’s a survey from JB Townsend of Crystal Stilts.
Top 10 Albums of 2010
Hmmm, hmmmmm best albums in 2010… I haven’t listened to very many new albums in 2010 at all to be honest. I heard most of the new Deerhunter record at a record store and liked it. I like Ariel Pink. That’s all that comes to mind. I guess I’m disqualified.
What was the highlight of 2010 for either you personally or for the band?
Most of 2010 I spent working on our new LP.
What was the low point of 2010 for you?
On New Year’s at 1 a.m., the first hour of 2010, I passed out in an ice puddle.
What are your thoughts on President Obama’s job performance in the last year? Has your optimism, if you were an Obama supporter, waned?
No. The way this country is it doesn’t matter what you do or say they’ll find something wrong with someone in power or celebrity no matter what. I personally feel he is more intelligent than any president we’ve had in 50-plus years.
What are your thoughts on the Tea Party movement?
I like [Tea Party supporter and former Velvet Underground member] Mo Tucker, so I guess it’s cool!
With the Internet making every artist’s music potentially available to a wide audience, is it now easier to find listeners or more difficult because you have to compete with so many other musicians?
Little bit of both I’m sure. I meet people all the time who say, “Hey, yeah I downloaded your record illegally,” and I’m like, “That’s cool dog!” (Cool that they admitted it.) If it was the early ’90s when CDs were booming business, and I met someone who was like “Hey man! I stole your CD from Specs!” I would say, “Hey, that’s pretty damn cool—you’re only one out of a bunch that was able to do that. Badass. Hope you like it. Pssst by the way, can you grab me that Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ’Em tape?” The record selling business got too fat and now it’s on a cleanse. All those years of gluttony are catching up. The consumers found a way to the goods that they were paying out the tooth for so long. Lemon juice and honey now for you.
Who would you rather listen to—a totally original musician whose compositions are groundbreaking but difficult to listen to or a musician whose songs are immediately enjoyable but derivative? Why?
I think most of the best music ever made had an element of derivation, but the artists that are known as great were able to make it theirs.
In the race to find new bands, are too many unworthy bands being hyped up by music blogs and websites? How are music fans supposed to filter through all these new bands being hyped?
I kind of believe that time is the best way to tell. There’s definitely a bandwagon lately, though. Bands that sound like Phil Collins recording on GarageBand. I feel like these youngsters are listening to modern bands that they perceive as being successful and are trying to recreate whatever formula they think has some mass appeal rather than playing music that they love. That’s been happening on the periphery of pop music forever, though. Every little movement has the fakers and bandwagoneers.
If your house was on fire, what would you grab as you were running out?
Living things. Guitar. Paddle ball. Funny hat.
If you could relive one day of your life, which would it be?
Tomorrow.
What’s the strangest fan encounter you’ve ever had?
I used to make parachute forts out of sheets, books, and fans. You take a fan and attach a sheet to it, put it on high and then close it down with heavy objects or books.
If you had a bucket list, what would be the Top 4 things on that list?
1. Hang out with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.
2. Write a book.
3. Make a movie.
4. Explore the South Pacific.
Do you (or did you) have any pets? If so, can you tell us about them? Who takes care of your pets while you are on tour?
I have no pets but I was just reading about a baby squirrel that thinks it’s a kitten. No joke, check it out.
What are your thoughts on chillwave? Do you feel that it’s a legitimate genre/movement or something simply created by music journalists? In general, do you feel that most scenes/movements are organic or are created by the media?
It’s not legitimate. Chillwave sounds like a joke to me. I think a lot of “journalists” want to coin terms like that to make them seem above what they’re writing about. It’s their form of making a record. I think more people should write books (if writing is truly what they want to do) and get some clout before they pollute the Internet with lazy blurbs.
What do you predict will be the next big social change?
I don’t know what the next one will be, but I hope there’s some kind of counter-technology, or at least a curbing that happens eventually, or everyone is going to write in weird acronyms and abbreviations, OMG.
(www.myspace.com/crystalstilts)
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