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Chain reactions
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Chain & the Gang’s head honcho, Ian Svenonius, left an indelible mark when he taught punks to shake their hips in Nation of Ulysses, merged politics and R&B in the Make Up and sent self-professed indie rock bands back to school with Weird War. His new joint finds Svenonius at his most primal rock ’n’ roll moment. Although they earmark rock’s glory years of the ’50s and ’60s, Chain & the Gang manage to avoid the retro tag with wry observations, absurdism, political rants and stream-of-consciousness raps. The Mirror talked to the very polite Svenonius over the phone while he prepared for his upcoming tour, and got his thoughts on a few things. On MP3s: “People now look at entire records as a pill they swallow, like Valium. When vinyl was happening, people put a lot of importance into it and the groups making the records were feeling that importance. Without that format, I think a lot of groups have lost their power and now they’re content to just tell people to hit ’em up on MySpace. It’s really tempered people’s expectations.” On rock ’n’ roll: “It used to be a real innovative and fun thing, but now it often just feels like a horrible inevitability because it’s been misused, abused and overused. I understand how people can find it hard to get excited about rock ’n’ roll because it’s just so omnipresent. I don’t really want to scream over the Dead Boys’ “Sonic Reducer” when I’m trying to talk to someone anymore either.” On politics in rock: “Politics will always be in music because people are always going to sing about what they care about, but ultimately, lyrics are pretty incidental.” On Obama: “After Bush won reelection in 2004, people were filled with feelings of horror, alienation and nihilism, and just surrendered. People are now filled with optimism again, which I think is important, but it’s also a perfect time for the ruling class because there is a leader who’s instituting a lot of the same policies and bailing out Wall Street, and no one is going to critique him.” WITH THE HIVE DWELLERS AND |
