Interference Magazine
Volume 2, Number 6
Free
For more information, contact Mike Hammer
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I know one thing about people like us -- people who spend unconscionable amounts of time and money in record stores, who listen obsessively to certain radio shows, who absolutely cannot leave the house without something to listen to in the car or on the walkman, who read not just music zines, but reviews of music zines -- and that is this: we live in the hope that our tedious, embarrassing, sometimes painful lives will be redeemed, at least once in a while, by music. If it's been a while since this has happened to you, I urge you to get a copy of Interference and turn to page eight.
Page eight is where you'll find this month's cover story. It is ostensibly an interview with Mogwai. However, the best part of the story is not Stuart Braithwaite's laconic answers, but the tale of how Interference's Steve Kowalski and Zach Hooker managed to get to him. It involves a frenzied rush-hour car ride from Cleveland to Pittsburgh, a cancelled interview with another band, a misplaced guest list and an empty wallet, arriving late, rumpled and out of breath, and, right up until the encore, a disappointing show. To quote, "I was expecting a living wall of sound that would reach out, wrap itself around me, and constrict...instead I got five Scottish guys standing around not doing much of anything."
Then, miraculously, it turns around. The encore, "My Father, the King", makes life livable again, in the way that only music can. "The climax of the encore was cut off by every single string being pulled from every single instrument," Kowalski writes, "all instruments turned up to 11, guitars hung on top of racks and feedback eating away at the audience's eardrums." It is almost an anticlimax when the author finds Braithwaite leaning against the wall afterward and cadges an interview.
The Mogwai interview -- I feel like I should put the word interview in quotes -- was my favorite part of this month's Interference. There is also an interesting version of the regular "10 Questions" feature with Cerberus Shoal, who apparently don't like Sabbath or Zeppelin, as well as interviews with Damien Jurado, Pedro the Lion, the Detachment Kit, Sean Na Na and the Reputation that fill out the book.
The CD review section continues to feature multiple perspectives on each recording, though this month's items seem a bit less contentious than before. I guess it's interesting to know that lots of people liked the same albums, but I personally would like to see more blood on the floor. You know, "Jane, you ignorant slut..." -- that kind of thing.
This issue also seemed to be more carefully written than before, without losing the very direct conversational tone that makes Interference read like a letter from a friend. You get the sense that its writers are real, ordinary people who just happen to care about music, and that, ultimately, is the appeal of Interference.
-- Jennifer Kelly
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