Friday music weekend: Halloween Swim Team

Hey so, people have started adding things to the calendar, which is really fun to see! Sorry the page is sort of plain, it's just a template, but it gets the job done.

If you're looking for stuff to do this weekend, I would go here!

So I've lived with Halloween Swim Team's The End Of The Sky for about a week now. I've listened to it on my headphones at work, driving in my car, and on my home stereo at night before bed. Though I felt drawn to the album I struggled to describe its appeal. Comprised mostly of lilting synth sounds and Billy Corgan-esque vocals, the album - as its name suggests - meanders atmospherically.

I didn't "get it" until today, when I was listening closely to "The Magick Song," and I literally had an acid flashback.

"Magick Song" is easily the album's strongest track. The manic pop psychedelic jaunt is where Halloween Swim Team's sound really synthesizes (It works on so many different levels, folks!). It's a pleasing combination of almost flippant synths and incongruous vocals skipping through lyrics about "secret elevators" and "a piece of the sun." The part about the boy who only "wants to hear you go, 'Ooh ooh ooh'" is sublime.

This is music for after you've peaked and you're grooving into your comedown. At this point the walls are still breathing and the ceiling is still crawling, but you're not hurtling through outer space. And it's definitely well past sunset outside, and the darkness brings some occasionally heavy thoughts with it. Like the ghost patterns melting across the floor, the vocals weave through a double dutch jump rope of electronic sounds.

I sort of wonder what it would be like if those vocals were just a little more present - the synths were occasionally overpowering, although I do appreciate Dustin Krapes sort of dreamily settled in there.

"Numb" is rather exquisite, sweeter and lighter than the rest, and also one of the most moving tracks. With the vocals bare against an organic beat, "Numb" is a little more raw, a little more human, and quite wistful. "Your Merry Way" is likewise good, and concluding the album, it defies its title and creeps slowly into the recesses of your brain in a slow-moving room with red light as the horror movie strings slide down your spine.

And then you wake up, and you realize you haven't been yourself for a long long time.

The band was kind enough to give me a little insight into their process.

Greatest musical influences?
Suicide, At The Drive-In, Kraftwerk, The Flaming Lips, Metallica, Gary Numan

What's your gear?
We're gathering a bunch of new stuff but right now.. upgrading things for the next record, but at the moment, this is the stuff we usually use for a live set, and what we used to make The End Of The Sky:

Jon:
Moog Voyager, Juno 60

Dustin:
Prophet 600, Yamaha CSX 200

Scott:
Microkorg

(We make our drum beats in Ableton Live.. using samples we gathered from boss 808, 909, a Linn and other random drum machines... )

Where can people find you?
WEBSITE: www.halloweenswimteam.com
BLOG: www.halloweenswimteam.wordpress.com
MYSPACE: www.myspace.com/halloweenswimteam
TWITTER: www.twitter.com/hstmusic

What's your going out/pre-show ritual?
We don't really have anything like that but we usually drink energy drinks ... sometimes if we're in a different city we'll scope out a good place for pizza or Mexican food.. and if there's time before a set, I also like to get myself pumped by doing a minimum of 250 one armed push ups with each arm and a bass cab on my back... but I usually don't have time for that... actually, I've never had time for that... well maybe I have had the time but decided to not do it, because I can't.... (Sorry I think I went too far with that....)

Something about you that most people don't know.
We're all originally from the Inland Empire and it's exactly like the David Lynch film.

Halloween Swim Team is Dustin M. Krapes, Jon Navarro, and Scottarthur Carrillo. Their full length album, The End Of The Sky, is available on Modern Sleeze! Records, and you can buy it here.