They may be mildly annoyed that I included the term "Boards of Canada" in this sentence, they are from Pittsburgh, and they are named Tom Fec, or the one we talked to was at least.
Tom: Hello... I'm going through our old emails here and... Did any of the Black Moths ever grant you an interview? I just looked at the site... What's the concept? I think I'm intrigued.
IRS: Glad you replied! I forgot about our request to interview you. I didn't think anyone would want to be interviewed by us because our site was so dumb. It started out as a parody of sites of hipster places like Pitchfork, but it just kind of raveled from there into madness. There are a couple people behind the site, but we each have millions of pseudonyms.
Anyway, we would love to interview you, if you don't mind being interviewed by stupid people asking stupid questions. Okay? And does anyone involved with the band have AIM? If not, we could just do this through email.
Tom: None of us use AIM. We'll have to do email. How'd you hear of us?
IRS: Just like you heard of us--Through the power of the internet. The massive collective that is the Indie Rock Site collectively owns Start a People. We downloaded "I Think it is Beautiful That You are 256 Colors Too" before the album was bought, and we think we like normal vocals as opposed to computerized ones. Why do you do these things? Defend yourself! We ask the HARD questions here.
Tom: The answer is that the vocoder is better. It's an actual analog instrument that I'm playing. I'm not comfortable singing, and decided to stop pretending that I was. The vocoder that I'm using now is pretty old, and adds a lot of texture, especially in a live setting. I know that we drew a line between people who like Falling Through a Field and those who like Start a People. I don't know when or if we'll ever go back to crappy singing, but for now I wish everyone would play nice.
IRS: The myth instilled in every young American is that Black Moth Super Rainbow enjoy frolicking in the meadows and sniffing flowers instead of eating Ecstasy and going to the "raves" I read about in Reader's Digest. Is this true? Just how organic are you? What musical artists inspire you--Are they also organic, or are they man-made?
Tom: Yeah, that's true. Some of the others might enjoy the Ecstasy and raves, but still probably not as much as the meadows. We're are organic as we can be for a self-produced project that does the kind of music we do. [Here Tom inserts a smiley, indicating pleasantries.]
I'm inspired by the sounds that I sort of remember. I wanna try to recreate them. And I think we're more influenced by bands like Led Zeppelin or Lightning Bolt than that one that everyone compares us to.
IRS: What sounds do you sort of remember? The music reminds me a little bit of watching science documentaries in middle school. Also, tell the universe more about Lightning Bolt. Everyone already knows about Led Zeppelin--They do that one song.
Tom: You know... All those film strips with the cassette that beeps to tell you to change the slide. So yeah, you're exactly right. Lightning Bolt is from Rhode Island.
Test questions:
1. Who the heck is Lightning Bolt?
2. Vocoder -- Yea or Nay? You decide in our online poll.
3. Why did the interview end so abruptly?
THE ONLINE POLL
Click here for "Yes, I love the vocoder."
Click here for "No, the vocoder is a dark shroud."