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Feb 20, 2013 EmptyMansions By Laura Studarus

Recently Interpol drummer Sam Forgarino announced he was starting a new side-project called EmptyMansions. As a favorite of Under the Radar, we of course had to ask him to contribute to our ongoing mixtape project. What he delivered was an epic meditation on the broken heart. Check out the tape and what he had to say about the state of his own heart below. His debut album under the EmptyMansions moniker streets April 2 via Riot House Records.

Says Forgarino:

The last time I made a mix tape, it was on an actual tape, a cassette. I was heart-broken and pathetic. She had dumped me. We lived together in a dank little apartment. Then, we didn’t. She found another. A mutual friend who’d met the new beau said “He’s the most good looking guy I’d ever seen.”

Did I need that bit of info? Not really.

I then poured my melted soul (which turned out to be my ego. The devil confirmed this for me. It’s cool. I’m good.) on to the songs that reflected my condition, and spread the mix out on a tape. What I didn’t know how to say, was articulated by sounds, and words of empathy, written by all these different strangers that I knew so well. I later realized that I made the mix tape for myself. The ex-lover was merely a prop; an excuse to assist in my own sonic self-exorcism—of her, and to have a better selection of jams for my daily commute to that awful job.

This here mix (Many of the selects were recorded from vinyl, LP, wax… Just tryin’ to replicate the original process. Half of it, at least. Ain’t nobody gettin’ a cassette, I know that much.) has not the theme of wretched heart-break or fractured ego. Well, it does a little bit… little bit. Don’t read into it though, because I’m just fine. There’s some dark content, too. What did you expect? It really just comes down to “I gotta F**k’in share this sh*t, it’s so good!”

Strap on yr. air guitar. It’s cool, nobody’s watching. And if they are? Give ‘em a show, rocker.

EmptyMansions Mixtape for Under the Radar by Under_Radar_Mag on Mixcloud

Tracklist:

1. Audiowhore - Archers Of Loaf

2. Pixies - Rock Music

3. Kustomized - Better Off Dead

4. Supersuckers - Creepy Jackalope Eye

5. Devo - Be Stiff [Live]

6. The Black Angels - Young Man Dead

7. Breeders - Happiness Is A Warm Gun

8. Failure - Screen Man

9. Jawbox - Motorist

10. Sugar - Tilted

11. Bailter Space - Begin

12. My Bloody Valentine - Honey Power

13. Mercury Rev - Frittering

14. Deerhunter - Spring Hall Convert

15. Codeine - Pick Up Song

16. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Lay Me Low

17. Barry Manilow - Could It Be Magic

18. Melvins - The Kicking Machine

19. The Jesus Lizard - South Mouth

20. TV On The Radio - Caffeinated Consciousness

(www.facebook.com/EmptyMansions)

(www.emptymansions.com)