The Alkaline Trio release b-sides collection
Jan 30, 2007
"Remains" gives the die hard Trio collector everything he already has, but the DVD was a nice touch.
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Vintage Holiday Christmas Tunes
Dec 1, 2006
A nostalgic review of a few Holiday tracks from the not-so-distant past. Bright Eyes: A Christmas Album (2004) Saddle Creek Records, and The Vandals: Oi to the World (1996) Kung Fu Records.
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Like the Faint? read this....
Aug 26, 2006
Ratatat are a two piece techno/Electronica band who have two full length albums plus an album of remixes which include songs from G-Unit, Missy Elliot, Ghostface Killah, Jay-Z and more!
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Pedro the Lion singer goes solo
Jul 11, 2006
The lead singer of Pedro the Lion releases his first solo album. David Bazan's lyrics and smooth voice are sure to soothe even the savage beast.
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Esau
Kearney, Nebraska
by Lucas Wright
Esau: biblically and historically the son of Isaac and Rebekah who sold his birthright to his twin brother Jacob for a bowl of soup. But if you ask the right people in this part of the world who Esau is you would get a totally different answer. The latest musical effort of Kent Lutt on drums and vocals, Eric Nyffeler on lead guitar, John Augustine on bass and Dan Nickel on guitar and effects are the band Esau and they have a quite different take on music, and life, than your typical run-of-the-mill band.
The sound of Esau is one that defies most conventional descriptions. Their sound is heavy and loud at times, yet somber and ambient at other points and combines a broad array of instruments and influences to create a unique live listening experience. One thing about Esau that differs from other bands the members have been in previously, (ex- feariscalm and Monday’s Child members) is the extensive use of synthetic instruments and elements to achieve this effect.
I had the opportunity to sit down with this relatively new and edgy band to talk about all things Esau.
Tumbleweed (TW): What is the story behind the name Esau?
Esau- Eric Nyffeler (EE): The reason we picked the name Esau is because we like it based purely on the aesthetic basis. Just those four letters, it’s a really weird looking and sounding word. It’s a word that we’re kind of free to fill in the blanks when you first hear it instead of like ‘flaming squirrels’. There are preconceived notions to a lot of band names, but not with this one. And I like the fact that a lot of people mispronounce it.
Esau- John Augustine (EJ): When I first heard it I was thinking ‘eSaw’ like and electronic saw that would pop out of your computer.
Esau- Kent Lutt (EK): For once we actually decided to pick something that we thought was kind of descriptive and cool rather than something that had a lot of meaning behind it. That’s essentially why we chose it.
Esau- Dan Nickel (ED): I like it because there is very little connotation unless you actually know the story.
TW- How does Esau write their songs?
EE: Well most of it comes from one person just jamming out or somebody has a good idea for a part that goes somewhere in a particular song. It’s just kind of different for every song I guess.
EK: Eric and I wrote a lot of the parts and we spread the lyrics out. Essentially what we’re going for is theme, we don’t want to call it a concept theme or it’s not a concept album, it’s not Pinball Wizard…
ED: It’s not Tommy…
EK: It’s not Tommy and it’s not The Wall. We want to convey a feeling from the very beginning of the album or the beginning of the performance to the end of giving up and possibly trying to find another feeling to go on from that. Because once you give up on something there’s not much left so you have to find something else or just sit down and rot. So basically that feeling of giving up, loneliness and trying to find some sliver of hope that’s left.
EJ: Esau is writing in the spirit of music that has been there for centuries, people writing music for the expression of themselves and emotion. I’m not doing this to sound like another band or to do something that other bands try to do.
TW: Well to me then it sounds like the mood you are going for sort of fits the idea behind the real Esau…
EK: That’s not necessarily done on purpose in this case… I think it’s more of a coincidence but I can see your reasoning. This is just our initial effort so in the future we may veer away from that idea.
TW: Now the sound of Esau is one that has a lot of electronic elements…why is this?
EL: Well, as you can see here we have a lot of synthetic elements. Here you see we have a keyboard with some synthesizer effects (Lutt plays in impressive little diddy on the keyboard) and back there you can see my electronic drum pads.
TW: I see that. And Dan, I see you have quite a collection and array of pedals over there. Tell me what you do to create your loops and effects.
ED: Most of the loops are taken from different parts of other songs and then layered upon each other to produce the sounds you hear. Also, the effects you hear are mostly eight bit parts that I’ve incorporated as well.
EJ: We are not the kind of band to stick to drum, bass, guitar, etc. The music we play isn’t always appropriate to just those instruments, we do things with saxophones and trombones and toy pianos and oboes and slides to encompass the whole music world.
EE: I know personally, I have become quite bored with the stereotypical path that contemporary rock music has taken. The coolest live music I’ve ever seen is when they do something extra and special to make it memorable. Like when we say Kayo Dot they ended with everybody breaking down and banging on pieces of metal. That makes it more interesting for the audience. And when we play, we do everything live because it’s easy to add things in recordings but it’s disappointing when you hear those songs live and it’s missing those elements. Doing it all live is more memorable and out of the ordinary. We are trying to achieve what Phil Spectre does with the ‘wall of sound’ but reproduce it live. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a band’s CD and it’s so dense and wonderful with all this music then I see them live and it’s just a thin skeletal version of that song. We are trying to make it a live wall of sound.
TW: So what’s it like playing live shows? You guys have a lot of long and epic songs?
EK: It’s often difficult to play for that long without getting tired. I mean playing the drums is hard enough but singing all of the lyrics and playing the other instruments. Most of our songs are fifteen minutes or more.
ED: Lately we have been playing our entire set straight through with no break which adds to the stress of playing live.
EE: For me, typically shows consist of hours of loading and unloading of equipment, the 45 minute set, and then ending a slightly disappointed because we are all perfectionists and nothing ever goes exactly as planned.
In the end, Esau was best summed up by Augustine’s wonderful metaphor about a train. He explained that “One of my favorite things ever since I’ve been old enough to think about things was the thought of a huge ass train just going places it’s not supposed to be. It’s not on the rail, it’s going through a neighborhood or through the ocean or on the moon or something. And that’s what this band means to me. We have all these different things and we’re not on a track going the same place everybody else is. It’s just like a train trying to Parallel Park on your block in front of your mailbox.”
