Doctor Coldtouch - The Interview

Mike from Doctor Coldtouch was kind enough to answer a few questions for The Drawer. First you'll need to hit play on the bandcamp player below and checkout their EP on Bandcamp. Then as your ears are awash in the sounds of the good Doctor you can check out what Mike had to say about the band, where they're from and where they're going.


 
The Drawer - We'll start with some basic stuff, How long have you been playing together, where are you from and, If you don't mind, where did the name Doctor Coldtouch come from?

 The trio's been playing together for about a year now.  My brother John and I have been jamming for years now in a number of different bands, Doctor Coldtouch being our latest project with the addition of bassist Joe.  All three of us grew up in central NJ. As far as the name goes, (while it would be fun to keep some mystery intact) i think its better to clarify the story as opposed to having people assume we're a band of gynecologists. The name comes from the psuedonym Joe gave to some guy his friend's mother was having an affair with. He claims that this strange man "made no introduction aside from an unsettlingly frigid handshake". He also swears that the man entered the house late one night and pressed his finger gently to his lips before vanishing into the dark hallway. It's been debated whether or not he did so by gliding without moving his legs. The stories of Doctor Coldtouch often refer to him with varying levels of magic abilities. So basically Doctor Coldtouch is a real dude. Whether he's a human being or some sort of malevolent spirit however, has simply never been answered.

The Drawer - You guys play some pretty technical stuff, how long have you been playing your instruments?

I've been playing guitar for 12 years, and John about the same on drums. But Joe's only been playing bass since the band formed, having been a guitarist since 15 or so.

The Drawer - How well are you able to pull of your songs live as a 3 piece? Listening to the EP it sounds like you should have a whole pile of guitar players.

We were actually slated to be a four-piece, originally, but I think it worked out for the better.  Two guitars would have either muddied the live sound, or completely redefined the writing process.  In practice, the most challenging part of recreating the EP on stage is keeping everything super tight.  With only three members, there's not a lot of cushioning for fuck ups.

The Drawer - I hear several influences in your sound, you guys describe yourselves as if "Rush had grown up  listening to Cannibal Corpse," other than those two, what bands are out there current/past that have influenced you?

The Coldtouch sound is a weird one to try and pinpoint.  Obviously The Fall of Troy and Protest the Hero have been tremendously influential for us, as well as bands like Dream Theater and Coheed.  But at the same time we each dig on such different shit, from The Faceless and Decapitated to The Mars Volta and Glassjaw. I think that's why I love this project so much.  Because we don't have any one sound, and we get to condense all of these genres that we love down into a capsule of scary fun.  

The Drawer - How about lyrically, what influences you?

I really like telling stories with each song.  Vocalists like Trevor Strnad of Black Dahlia, or Tommy Rogers from Between the Buried and Me are just excellent at spinning these epic tales, and doing so in as few words as possible.  And as grandiose as these concepts can get, they never lose the human aspect that makes a song so powerful.  I try to bring that same idea to the table lyrically.

The Drawer - What albums are you guys listening to at the moment?

A friend just burned me a copy of Lamb of God's As the Palaces Burn, and that won't be leaving my car stereo for another week or so. John's been fixated on the new Daft Punk CD, and Joe listens almost exclusively to rap music.

The Drawer - What's next for Doctor Coldtouch? Playing locally?

We're in the process of organizing a small tour of the Northeast with our friends in Lightning Lord and SYKA, aimed at the middle/end of August.

The Drawer - If you could tour with anyone who would it be?

I don't know, I like to think we could fit in well on any bill.  Maybe Slayer.  Or Morris Day and the Time, that dude knows how to party.

The Drawer - Are you guys looking for a label or are you content to continue the DIY approach?

We are definitely open to the idea of a label and the next tier of musical professionalism.  But at the same time, we love doing what we're doing, and if at the end of the day I have a few more stories to tell, I'll be a satisfied man.

The Drawer - Are there physical copies of the EP?

Na.  We tried handing out simple burned copied of our EP at the last show.  No one seemed really into it.  It seems a better move now to keep the music itself digital, and focus on printing up some sweet shirts and other garments. 

The Drawer - Any plans for a full length in the future?

Absolutely.  We've already got two new tracks done, and few more working their way through the writing process.

The Drawer - You guys alternate between screams and clean singing, do you favor one style over the other?

I can't specify any preference between the two.  I think both can evoke some kind of feeling, and it's really at the music's discretion on which fits best.

Speed round stuff:
Favorite Band: The Black Dahlia Murder
Favorite Record: Thick as a Brick
Favorite Book: The Necronomicon 
Jelly or Jam? Pass
Favorite Television show? Full House

I think Mike's having a go at me there with his Black Dahlia Murder answer. Clearly the correct answer to the favorite band question is Jessie and The Rippers.

So there you go. Check these guys out if they come near you this Summer or if you're in the Jersey area.
 

soundgrabs

Something called Soundgrabs over at archive.org led me to Derek Bacon's Soundgrabs page. Lots of captured audio categorized by subject - Water & Weather, Found music, Laughter, etc. A really nice collection, and the simple interface lets you stream them simultaneously. One of the collections is "Words & situations," the kind of thing I'm always interested in hearing. Snippets of conversations. I'm listening to it right alongside "The home," which is sounds made from objects around a home.

As I (sort of) stated, he's also made all of the collections available at archive.org. This really inspires me to get the minidisc recorder out and do some of the things I used to do.

Ugly Bugs

Ugly Bug Crawl - Pestival Walk


There is a snippet of a song I've never heard by Burl Ives. (To be honest, there aren't many songs I HAVE heard by Burl Ives.) Additionally, there is a guy talking with a British accent. I don't know what this is, but I'm resuming my role as interrupter of your regularly-scheduled-Fanch-actually-tries-to-post-things-people-enjoy-reading apostrophe. There was a time when I was something more than a thorn in the side of the salamander, but honestly I can't remember when that time was, or what, exactly, I was at that time.



There are two episodes of the Twilight Zone that mention Major Bowes, who hosted a radio talent show program in the 1930s and 1940s. One is Static, absolutely one of the best episodes of the show. The other... you'll have to figure it out for yourself. You can listen to part of an episode from September 21, 1939 here. Brought to you by Plymouth. When you see that car I know you, too, will say, "superb."

There's a guy talking about a purse.

Finally, for me, today, there's Pee Bug.


What this reminds me of is every kind of thing I try to find so that I can post here. You know, half-almost-tuned acoustic guitars, inane lyrics, audio manipulation. It says the album's been downloaded 24,256 times. Clearly somebody knows how something works.

Okay, I'll return you to your Fanch, with something thought-out and interesting. See you about this time next summer.

(it worries me that pee-bug might be already a thing that someone has talked about on here.)

Turns out this is an UPDATE. I posted about this pee bug thing in may, 2011, when it had 17,000+ downloads. Hope you enjoy it all over again! My son is asking me to turn it off.

Null

Forgotten Albums of the 1990's

I was born in 1980. Nearly all of the music I listened to in the 80's was provided by my parents, either by controlling the radio or putting on various record albums. In the early 1990's I finally got my own walkman and cd player so I could pick out my own music. Starting out as any kid in a small town would I bought what I new, which was primarily stuff on the radio or MTV at the time. I was still searching for what I liked, what really spoke to me. I'd say 8th grade was the year when it all started to click for me. I had a friend at school that let me borrow Tool's Undertow cassette, the Walmart version with the UPC cover art. I also remember dubbing Nirvana's In Utero off the radio because for some reason the station was playing the entire album. What really pushed me down the road of the alternative rock that was becoming popular at the time was getting The Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream as a secret Santa gift from a girl in school. I listened to that cd over and over. It was also around this time that I discovered Pearl Jam's Ten, which was my going to sleep album for a long, long, time.

Anyway, as the 90's moved along, so did I, listening to heavier music, like Deftones, Rage Against The Machine and Sepultura and eventually the dreaded Nu-metal. For good or bad, I was always a bigger fan of Coal Chamber than Korn.

All that stuff is fairly well known and it's influences on my musical outlook are obvious. The real purpose of this post is to shed some light on some albums from the 90's that are maybe mostly overlooked, but are really worth checking out. They run the gamut from weird poppy stuff, to alternative rock, to heavy. Here's a list in no particular order:

1) Failure: Fantastic Planet - I learned about Failure from one of my best friends in high school. He heard about them through the Tool message board. Failure was a sort of space rock band. They could be heavy, the could be punky, they could be pretty. From the opening  clicky musicbox sounds of Saturday Savior I was completely hooked on this album. The album just plain rocks, I would argue that it's pretty flawless front to back. The band may have suffered from comparisons to Nirvana, but they really don't sound anything like Nirvana. After this album came out Failure broke up. Ken Andrews has had some solo albums and had another short lived band called Year of the Rabbit that was pretty good. Greg Edwards is in Autolux.

2) Hum: Downward Is Heavenward - Hum is probably most famous for their mini radio hit Stars from the album You'd Prefer and Astronaut, but their final record Downward is Heavenward is really something to be admired. Hum was always a loud band playing quiet songs. I don't even know what that means. Downward is Heavenward should have made them one of the biggest bands of the time, but it went relatively unnoticed and the band broke up. There are so many great heavy and spacey songs on this record. Green to Me, Dream Boat, The Isle of Cheeta, The Scientists. Give it a listen.

3) Lusk - Free Mars - Lusk features Paul D'Amour, formerly of Tool, and Brad Laner of Medicine. There were other people. I don't remember their names. Free Mars is an amazing record from start to finish. It's really a lush record that I listened to over and over and over again. This is really the only record the band made. I think I first saw Lusk on the short lived MTV show 12 Angry viewers, where a panel of people had to vote on which music video would go into rotation on MTV. Lusk had a sort of creepy video for Backworlds that I don't think won. I could be wrong. Anyway, it wasIl one of those songs that I was like "holy shit, what was that?" and I ran out and bought the record. I was so impressed I used the title of the song Mindray to create my first ever email address at rocketmail.com. ROCKETMAIL. Find this album. You won't be disappointed. I'm actually pretty pissed off that I can't find my copy of this cd. It's got to be somewhere right? Right?

4) Self - Subliminal Plastic Motives - This  record was a sort of home made pop record with odd catchy songs. I liked this album. I bought this record at a Sam Goody's near Baltimore. I remember buying it. I wonder how many people today remember what they were doing when bought an mp3?


5) Lovecup - Greefus Groinks and Sheet This album was release on the same Ten Inch Records label that put out Hum's Electra 2000. It was distributed through parasol mail order, which is where I got it from. You can find most of the songs on youtube now. It's just a great noisy rock record. Click the link above to hear Entirely Made of Wood. Here's another great song called Beloit. These guys came from the same Champaign Il scene that produced Hum.

6) Handsome - Handsome (s/t) - This was a heavy rock album released in the late 90's by some guys that worked with other hardcore bands, Quicksand maybe? It's a great record. Click the link to listen to Thrown Away. The guitars are super crunchy on this record.

7) Far - Tin Cans With Strings to You - Far were a lot like Deftones, heavy guitars with screaming vocals and quiet whispers. This is their first record. I had to special order it from the record store. There's a sort of cover of Paul Simon's The Boxer on here that is great. There's also a track called In the Aisle, Yelling that I remember blasting through my car stereo like there was no tomorrow.

8) No Knife - Hit Man Dreams - this was sort of a more punk version of Failure. As I listen back to it now, it kind of sounds like a precursor to post hardcore/emo, but also there's definitely some pop punk lurking in the song structures. Check out Sweep Away My Shadow


There are probably others that I'm not remembering at the moment. If you haven't heard these records please go check them out.

Choke - Gauze/Total Reverence

Thanks to the folks over at http://penmallet.blogspot.com/ for sharing the Choke releases. This is some cool early 90's post punk shoegaze stuff from New Mexico. Very interesting. Something in my brain tells me that had this band been doing this stuff now they might be very popular.

d/l (vbr .mp3)

stream:

Die On Planes - Our Work Matters

Self described as "Brisbane's dumbest band ever, however, more of a physics experiment than a band" Die On Planes plays an improvised version of  instrumental stoner rock that pretty much just kicks ass. Free Download. How can you go wrong with a song called 'Moons of Uranus'?


Also, for any regulars out there that might be concerned that this blog is taking a more mainstream turn, all I can say is that I will continue to post things that I find interesting and that are usually being given away for free by the artists. I am in currently in the mood for heavy music so that's what I've been posting. I promise the weird, crazy shit won't be going away.

Papertowns. - Passion/Aggression

Name your own price on Bandcamp - some post hardcore/post rock stuff.

Doctor Coldtouch

Here's another slice of prog metal/math rock. More Protest The Hero style stuff, but maybe also Black Dhalia Murder thrown in for good measure. Plus the guy is wearing a Coheed shirt in the band photo so you can't go wrong there. They've got a 4 song EP on bandcamp that you can grab for $4. You can of course listen to it as many times as you want for free via the bandcamp website.

Sunbather

This album is incredibly good. I'm not going to review it because everyone everywhere is writing better reviews than I possibly could. Go buy it. Deafheaven - Sunbather. NPR has it listen in their top 15 albums of the year so far.

http://deafheavens.bandcamp.com/album/sunbather