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"Why are people being so critical of Lore Olympus? Yeah it's got problems, but they're just problems that would show up in a low budget film? It's not a big deal."
Honey I don't know how to tell you this but Lore Olympus is the fucking face of webtoon. It's not some low budget flick made on a 2 cent budget.
#GENUINE SHIT SOMEONE SAID#LO STANS ARE ANOTHER FUCKING BREED#anti lore olympus#lore olympus critical#anti lo
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Just after 7....Andy Giegerich of The Swindon Lot fills in the gaps.
I had met Andy Giegerich nearly 20 years ago after moving to Portland. The guy’s always been a super intelligent music fan with great taste and a very talented musicians as well. His first project that I was aware of was the Honus Huffhines who released a few records for the Braxeling label in Portland. Then, out of nowhere, a month or so ago Giegerich unleashed a solo album to the world under the name The Swindon Lot (The Scariana Trench is the title). I had no idea where the band name came from (he explains it below) but not surprisingly I heard some ultra-fine pop songs mixed in with some oddball, quirky sounds (the Elephant 6 world looms large in the Giegerich household) to create a whimsical world. Give The Scariana Trench a listen (or 3) and you’ll be happily sucked into a world where tubas and cornets are best friends with guitars and drums and everyone is enjoying themselves.
Before I dive into the solo record, I have to ask, are the Honus Huffhines still active?
Thanks for asking. The Huffhines remain hiatused (if that’s not a word, it really should be), coming up on seven years. We (Eric O’Connor and Ben Alberts and I), after our drummer Joe left, talked about it and decided we’d be one of those groups that will likely record and play out at some point, but there’s no timetable. In the meantime Eric and Ben play together in both Magnetic Health Factory and Lions of the Interstate, both of which continue to record. And I’m doing this as well as playing in a West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band tribute act that, I really hope, can play out once everyone can, well, play out. We’re called The Poorest of People.
When/why did the idea come about for doing a solo record?
I recorded and loosely released (digital only) a Swindon Lot EP in the week leading up to the 2017 inauguration, as both a way to escape the horrible realities about to be unleashed on the U.S. As I’d needed an outlet with the Huffhines on hiatus, it made sense to do a full-length. I actually started recording this in 2019, got busy with a new job and a few other here-and-there musical doings. So, yeah, long-ass labor for such a short (it’s only 32-plus minutes) record.
Where did the name come from, The Swindon Lot?
It’s an homage to my favorite band XTC and what for a while was my favorite TV show (the British Office). In the second season, a branch from Swindon merges with the branch from Slough, and the new workers are referred to the Swindon Lot. I kept waiting for XTC references when I first watched it, to no avail.
How did the songs come about…had most of them been written for a while or did they come about quickly?
It was a pretty wild mix. “(Oh) Beautiful Mountain” came to me in 2009, while I was hiking in the Steens Mountain area, while Luke Strahota and I sort-of threw together the last track, I guess it’s effectively the title track, while trying to put together a group wave. I’d sent him some files, but didn’t time them right, so they all came up together at the beginning of the track, and we thought it sounded freaky. Come to think of it, I should’ve given him a songwriting credit on it. I’ll get you on the reissues, Luke.
Anyway, some of the other ones, like “Reminded,” “Paper View,” “Tracey’s Child” and even “Teri Waters/Terry Watters” were songs I’d written that the Huffhines could tackle when we returned to the studio.
…and the recording of it? Was it more one shot or piecemeal?
I wish it were one-shot, because then I’d have a good excuse for how shoddy some of my playing is. But, Dave Berkham, from the Reverberations, mixed a bunch of the songs and did a good job hiding the mistakes (same goes for Kirk Larsen, who mastered it: I wasn’t there while he did it, but I’m guessing he found some workarounds that helped out a ton).
I definitely see/hear an Elephant 6 influence with the oddball bits here and there (and some of the song titles). Who else influenced the record?
There are four piano-driven songs that I wrote as I increasingly played more piano. Two of them (“Porter, Poster, Potter” and “Sunblocks”) were inspired by the great songwriter David Ackles while “Unrequiteds” is my attempt at a Wizzard song. I think I came sort of close, at least in spirit. Then, “Don’t Laugh,” which was also one of the last songs written for the project (around the end of 2019) is my go at a Rod Argent piano line. I drew heavily on “If It Don’t Work Out.”
But, yeah, you’re spot on. I’ve always loved the tweener stuff, the fragments, that Oliva Tremor Control used so well, and we tried to replicate that with the Huffhines second record. I got a few in here, and other than placing them a little better, I think they kind-of work.
Andy G. on a tour stop.
How do you feel about the final product?
It definitely could’ve have been better. I wish I’d had more confidence to enlist a real drummer to play on more songs: I’m hoping Luke will play on my next effort, a concept album I’ve had ready to go for about a decade now (it’s about the recent history of print journalism in Portland, although the longer I wait, the better chance it’ll become more of an ancient history). Quite often, I would play a part and let it go, rationalizing it as a lo-fi credo sort of thing. Those are the parts that bug me the most. Oh, and I’ve apparently lost the ability to sing. That’s by far the worst part of this effort. I’m pitchy, my dynamics are off and, fuck, I’ve gone in the past two years from nasally to super-nasally. I’m likely going to ask other people to sing my songs from now on. I’ll keep harmonizing, though: It’s way more fun, and I can focus on playing guitar or keyboards more than when I’m singing lead. But, yeah, those singing lead days, at least on all the songs, are over.
That all said, the Scariana songs are pretty good.
What are some current Portland bands that you like?
Oh man, the latest local act I’ve gotten is called Maita, and they’re, hmmm, kind-of psych-folk but with a tremendous singer who writes incredibly smart lyrics. Eyelids, of course, can do no wrong. The bands within the Nuggets Night community — the Reverberations, the Zags, the Cool Whips, the Pynnacles (RIP, Dave Busacker) — are always must-sees. Alison Dennis’s Dr Something is one of the city’s most entertaining and melodic acts. And, yeah, on our label, Braxeling bands — Josh Mayer just came out with a Fabulous 464s set that’s stellar, Lions of the Interstate, Metropolitan Farms, Magnetic Health Factory, Lodge Club — are brilliant, one and all. We’ve added the Harmony Motel, which is Stan Hall’s solo act, to our stable, and will put that out pretty soon. (Tosses the marketing cap to the side) OK, I’m back.
Top 10 desert island disc?
Your list and mine has at least one, maybe two, in common! Man, in looking at these, I feel fairly pedestrian…nothing like “Emergency” by the Tony Williams Lifetime (Andy Partridge’s favorite record). Fuck it…In no particular order:
Love, “Forever Changes”
Olivia Tremor Control “Dusk At Cubist Castle”
XTC, “Skylarking”
The Zombies “Odessey and Oracle”
Sly and the Family Stone “Stand”
The Turtles “Battle of the Bands”
John Coltrane “A Love Supreme”
Neutral Milk Hotel box set (that’s cheating, I know, but it has both On Avery Island” and “Aeroplane” in it, and I can’t live without either)
Barbara Manning “One Perfect Green Blanket”
Dave Giegerich “It’s About Time”
Your all-time 5 favorite record labels?
Spinart, Matador, Merge, Orange Twin, Sundazed
What’s next…more solo recordings? Another Huffhines record?
Most immediately, I’ll try to line up some willing Portland musicians for this concept record. I’m guessing studio time will be hard to get once herd immunity lands (hopefully, that last sentence will look hopelessly data in the matter of months.) Once Lions and Mag Health empty their new songs into the world, I’d like to get with those Huffhines fellows and co-write songs with them, which we’ve never done (always been the Huffhines primary songwriter…I miss writing with people). Also, I’m going to unleash a Major Healeys (my D.C. band) compilation into the world. I’m lining up ways to transfer the songs to a mastering format as you read this.
Closing words? Final thoughts? Words of wisdom?
Nah, platitudes breed attitudes. Hey, those might qualify as words of wisdom! Leaving it there…
www.theswindonlot.bandcamp.com
www.braxelingrecords1.bandcamp.com
The Braxeling crew.
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