Pop 1280

Sometimes you just need to revel in the filth of life, splash around, exult in the grit and the grime, play with a switchblade, scream, y’know. Nick Cave’s Birthday Party understood that, Joy Division understood that, and the Jesus Lizard damn sure understood that. Add to that twitchy-eyed lineage New York’s own Pop. 1280. The quartet’s most recent album, “The Horror” (out on Sacred Bones Records), plumbed the depths of the human psyche, and soundtracked the resultant grim discoveries  with pummeling waves of detuned bass and caveman drums, overlaid with broken glass synth and guitar lines. And those vocals… just a catalogue of human desperation (think David Yow, Laughing Hyenas’ John Brannon). They make a meal of most other young bands. See,  Pop. 1280 evoke a darker time in music, prior to the faux-rebellion of the Alternative Nation 90s, when underground music was scary shit, when your mom surely wouldn’t say, “That’s a nice tune,” when the dude standing next to you at a gig with a Whitehouse shirt would creep the hell out of you, and when labels like Amphetamine Reptile and Touch And Go were belching out prime sickness nonstop. Missed out on all that? Now you’re chance to see the 21^st Century version.

Chris Bug and Ivan Lip answered a few questions ahead of their gig in Jacksonville on September 6^th at Burro Bar downtown. Doors at 9pm. Door at 9pm. Cover minimal. Do not miss this. This is the dark stuff.

Are you looking forward to the tour? Are there any cities on the itinerary where you've had particularly interesting shows?

Chris Bug: I'm always looking forward to tour. We're going to a bunch of places we've never been to before, including Jacksonville! That's always exciting. And Atlanta, that's always a party.

One of the things I really love about "The Horror" is that it has this very loose, raw sound to it - was that one of your goals with the album, to keep it sounding live as possible? How did you pull it off?

Ivan Lip: Our goal was to keep things spontaneous and not overthink them.  We also wanted to try to do some writing in the studio so we had to keep the basic tracking pretty quick.  We recorded drums, guitars, and bass or synth all together on almost every song and then went to overdubs and didn't worry too much about feedback coming in and stuff so I think that's why it sounds kind of live.  I think that it's a pretty good document of a groovy time in our lives.   

Do you prefer live or studio work?

Ivan Lip: I think I prefer live work because it feels more natural.  You go out and just play your songs, and see what happens- so many things affect how a song comes out like your mood or what you ate or where you're playing.  Once you get in the studio and try to make a permanent or official version I think that it moves into a more restrictive thing for me.  I like both though.

What was it that prompted you to go from just listening to music to creating your own?

Ivan Lip: Well, I've been playing music in one form or another since I was around twelve, and I'll probably keep doing it long after this band stops playing regularly.  I think that we got the band together because there was something that we thought we could contribute to the discussion that nobody was saying.  Also, when Chris first moved here, we spent six months just going to shows, not even writing music, and I think our disdain for most bands we saw had a lot to do with us wanting to start doing it.

How did Pop. 1280 come together?

Chris Bug: We all met at a bikram yoga class in 1998, before it was cool.

How are songs composed, as far as division of creative labor?

Chris Bug: We don't have a set method for song writing. Sometimes one of us comes up with a riff or a lyric and we build from there. Other times one of us will have a more complete song idea. But we always finish arranging songs as a band. We work pretty slowly usually.

You guys are big industrial music fans?

Chris Bug: It's definitely an influence, especially the harder stuff like Nitzer Ebb and DAF. Lately we've been thinking about other sounds too, like acid house and more psychedelic industrial bands, like Skinny Puppy.

Your music is really physical and confrontational - but there's also this deep groove to the songs that I think might be overlooked sometimes - when you write songs is it in the back of your head to keep a swing in there instead of just all-out white noise?

Ivan Lip: I think for us to pursue a song there usually has to be something that we lock onto in it.  We work hard on songwriting and usually this writing is based around a groove or a beat.  Then we bring it into the light with all four of us and do what we can to fuck with it.  I think that having a foundation to then build around with all four of us and whatever instruments or effects pedals or scrap metal we have available makes things more exciting.  It grounds the chaos.  

https://www.facebook.com/events/325278564233797/