In My Ear - (Late August Edition)

The Berries, Moviola, Thomas Dollbaum, Weakened Friends, White Reaper, Tamar Berk

The arduous task of transcribing Zoom conversations is currently consuming me although AI is being a HUGE help. It may have been J Dziak who suggested that I dump a Zoom transcript into ChatGPT and ask it to format the raw content into something resembling a formal interview for publication. It’s not perfect but it’s a great start and saves me hours of transcribing.

Currently sitting on six conversations and have more scheduled in the next couple of weeks. At some point in the next two months, all of these conversations will be posted on BigTakeover.com. While you’re (anxiously) waiting, figured I’d share music by the artists that I’ve talked to recently. Hopefully you find something you dig here and will read my interviews when I post.

The Berries - “Angelus”
Great driving music, the soundtrack to a 5.5 hour drive I made to Chicago a few weeks ago. Sounds so familiar to me, maybe not this song, but there’s some War on Drugs/Tom Petty-style songwriting going on on the album which is out this week.

Moviola - “Earthbound”
Long story short - Moviola took shape in the Magnetic Planet Studio in Columbus, Ohio in the mid-90s where Moo Magazine had an office. Ted and Jake split time doing magazine layouts and playing music and when they needed a new bass player, Jerry (a fellow Moo writer/editor) stepped up. 30-ish years later, Moviola’s still putting out music that sounds like the Midwest with hints of early rock n’ roll, Dylan-style folk, Beach Boys-style harmonies, and Grateful Dead-style jams.

Thomas Dollbaum - “Angus Valley”
I get 40 emails a day from publicists pitching new songs, albums, tours, etc. I don’t open them all. I think the subject line to introduce me to Thomas Dollbaum may have named dropped MJ Lenderman so I HAD to at least open it. So glad I did as it contained a link to Thomas’s upcoming EP. I don’t think I had even made it through the first song before I followed up with the publicist and asked if I could interview Thomas. This was a rare phone call rather than Zoom meeting and my follow up email to the publicist read “This felt more like a conversation with a new friend than it did an interview.” Very excited for my friends - and, of course, others - to hear the EP. Reminds me a lot of Fust’s music.

Weakened Friends - “NPC”
You might sense a theme here. I only interview artists that I really, really like. Weakened Friends’ 2018 song “Blue Again” is one of my favorite songs of the last ten years. Was excited when a link to the band’s new album hit my in-box a few weeks ago. There’s been some press about what seems to be a completely random Buckethead guitar solo on the second single from the album, “NPC.”

When I interviewed Sonia and Annie last week, I had to ask about how this unlikely pairing happened.

White Reaper - “Honestly”
Matt and I saw White Reaper at the Newport Music Hall a few years ago and we definitely felt like we were old enough to be the dads of probably 95% of the audience. White Reaper’s like a product of like 2005-2010 pop-punk with classic rock (ala Cheap Trick, Thin Lizzy). On the new album, I hear a little bit of The Police and the Foo Fighters. When I asked Tony how the band makes money these days, he admitted that basically they are a traveling merchandise company selling t-shirts with music being the “bonus”. So, BUY MERCH FROM THE BANDS YOU LOVE.

Tamar Berk - “Stay Close By”
I’ve known Tamar since the ‘90s. Well, I’ve known of Tamar since the ‘90s. As a big fan of the mid-90s Chicago music scene (Veruca Salt, Fig Dish, Triple Fast Action), I kept my eyes on what was going on in the Windy City and Tamar’s band Starball was often called Veruca Salt’s little sister. There weren’t a ton of music streaming sites - this was the CD era - and it wasn’t until very recently that I actually heard Starball’s music for the first time. Tamar left Chicago, first to Portland, then to San Diego and a few years ago started writing music to release under her own name for the first time. Tamar have many mutual friends and have known of each other for 25+ years but last week was the first time we’ve ever met. Going to have to figure out how to whittle a 3-hour conversation down to something that is digestible for readers!