Interview Oxford Collapse

Con il loro sustain poderoso, gli Oxford Collpse giungono al terzo disco (il primo sulla leggendaria Sub Pop) evocando alcuni mostri sacri del rock indipendente americano (a qualche improvvido ascoltatore ha richiamato persino Beach Boys, Mission Of Burma, Fugazi, Husker Du e Mudhoneys, anche se il terzetto preferisce non essere paragonato a siffatte conclamate glorie del rock). Difatti lo spirito che emerge è fresco e giovanile, per cui meglio stare ad una certa distanza da ciò che il rock ha conosciuto, visto che mai come oggi il genere ha bisogno di scariche di entusiasmo che gli Oxford Collapse -il nome della band nacque dopo che i tre (il chitarrista Michael Pace, il bassista Adam Rizer e il batterista Dan Fetherston) tornarono da una vacanza studio in Inghilterra- riescono in parte ad introiettare. Snobbano diligentemente le mode, nonostante il contesto da cui provengono (Brooklyn) imponga talvolta il diktat del "cool a tutti i costi" e questo ce li rende simpatici. Attitudine nerd, spigolature di chitarre e genuinità espressiva completano il nostro giudizio positivo sulla band e ce la fanno consigliare a quanti ci leggono. Vi proponiamo una chiacchierata con questi bravi indie-ani!. Oxford Collapse "Remember The Night Parties" (Sub Pop, Distribuzione Audioglobe) 01.He'll Paint While We Play 02.Please Visit Your National Parks 03.Loser City 04.For The Khakis and the Sweatshirts 05.Return /of Burno 06.Lady Lawyers 07.Let's Vanish 08.Kenny Can't Afford It 09.Molasses 10.Forgot To Write 11.In Your Volcano

Hi guys. How are you? Glib, thanks!

Before listening to Remember the Night Parties, I listened you past Good Ground. It looks a sort of transition from ill-timed attitude (let's say so) to a more carefree one. If you should point to the most relevant differences....? Well, the biggest difference would be in the sound of the two albums. Night Parties is a really big, layered record, whereas A Good Ground literally sounds "smaller." The idea for the two albums was basically the same though, to write a record with a beginning, middle, and an end. I think we've gotten better at that over time, and hopefully you can hear the progression between albums.

Your new record seems to be an enthusiastic melting pot of positive messages. Did you definitively snobbed out the nihilistic vein of certain rock??? Well, it's never really been in our nature to dwell on negative shit. We're pretty positive people, we like to have fun, and we want to be able to translate that into what we do. We're not too interested in making somber, depressing music. Leave that to Nico.

I tried to "test" your record to some rock aficionados passing through our rooms... Some recorded reactions by them:

"Mmmm [chewing spearmint gums]... Nice! Who are them?"
"They looks Mudhoneys playing Beach Boys under the effect of Mdma"
"Nice... I suppose it has issued after The Obliterati"

If you could answer to them, what should you reason as an answer to their quotes? We'd obviously take the Mudhoney and Beach Boys comparisons as huge compliments, although I don't really think we sound like either of them. I like the fact that one person was chewing spearmint gum. We get the Burma thing often too, but I don't actually own any of their records.

A propos of Mission of Burma, did you like their last album? In you opinion, what's the reason why they produce a little but have a big influence on the whole rock scene???? I dunno, I only heard their last album once, in the van through a pair of $15 computer speakers, so I'm not a really good judge. I know that they combine melody and dissonance really well, and seem like cool dudes who have always done their own thing and have produced well-crafted songs of merit.

Referring to workouts like yours, someone maybe raves about a New Wave rebirth? But others argues that this New Wave rebirth is a sort of big fake! What's your opinion on this vital (!) matter? Ha. Not sure how "vital" it is to us. A lot of the bands we are influenced by and take cues from happened to be around in the early to mid 80's. At the same time, we all came of age in the early to mid 90s so we're basically as equally influenced by the stuff that was happening at that time (90s indie rock). All in all, we've found a way that we like to write songs, and we've found songs that we like to write, so hopefully we can eschew flavors-of-the-month these days.

Oxford Collapse started as a joke... Could you tell something about this joke???? To quote Moz, "that joke's not funny anymore."

What do the lyrics In The Volcano refer to? That song is basically about volcanoes and eruptions and seismic quakes and stuff like that. It's actually pretty literal. The numbers are a secret code that you have to crack. It probably helps if you're American though.

I love a phrase taken from Let's Vanish: "Disappearing in stages makes no sound at all". What about the birth of this song? The music for that song has been around for awhile, since before we wrote the songs for Night Parties. We always kept it on the back burner for being too "Interpol-sounding." We ultimately decided to finish it and include it on the album with the hopes of it being a huge international hit. I wrote lyrics that refer to my Grandfather and his life and the relationship I had with him, in kind of an obtuse way.

Even if sometimes it's not so easy to remember something from night parties then sketches (!), what are the night parties you liked most? The "night parties" in question refer to the parties that happen after your Bar/Bat Mitzvah. If you grow up Jewish in Long Island, New York like me, you went to a lot of these. Most of the parties happen during the day, usually right after the service. But anyone who's ever been to a Bar or Bat Mitzvah knows that the most fun receptions/parties are the ones that happen at night, when you stay up until midnight! When you're 13 it's pretty cool.

What's your favourite sweatshirt? A navy blue one, just like the one Ice Cube wears in "Boyz N the Hood."

What do you think about some (someone name them "maximalists") composers which considers guitar just as an object (like a fork or a vase)? Hmm, I actually have no idea what you're talking about. A guitar is just an object, like a fork or a vase or a drum set or an avocado. You can't eat with a guitar, though. I hate avocadoes.

Any possibility to see you perform in Italy ? We'd love to play Italy or any place in Europe sometime in the near future. I've only been to the Italian Riveria, and that was by myself when I was a student. So yes, we would love to come to Italy and play and eat. I am part Italian.