Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
I first met Dustin Wong when I interviewed his old band, Ponytail, for Giant Robot 57. It was in a parking lot as they waited to enter The Smell. The article came and went, but we've kept in touch and I've been waiting for an excuse to get him back into the pages of the magazine ever since. He was going to write My Perfect Day in Baltimore, but lost his camera when his apartment got robbed. A few times, he almost interviewed his mom, who is behind the Blythe doll revival. In the end, it took Infinite Love, a double CD of dreamy ad experimental guitar loops with an accompanying stoneriffic DVD (images below), to bring him back. This is an abbreviated online preview, released just before he hits L.A. on his solo tour. GR: You just played Shea Stadium. What!? DW: Oh! Well, the Shea Stadium I played isn’t actually the Shea Stadium. It’s a DIY space in Bushwick. The crazy thing is that when my partner and I drove up, a tornado hit the city! We had to pull over, and there was even a flipped-over truck on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge! The clouds looked really intense. GR: Tell me about playing solo. Do you feel vulnerable or lonely? Or maybe it’s really empowering and energizing! DW: It is a little bit vulnerable, but I think that’s a good thing, too. It keeps me on my toes, for sure. It’s definitely a lot more relaxed than Ponytail. I can sit down and take a deep breath, you know? Whenever I feel like I’m immersed in the music I’m playing, it feels very energizing, very blissful. If I make a mistake, it’s all my fault, too–which is really refreshing to me, because I’m completely responsible. GR: Your solo material seems way different from what you were doing with Ponytail, but can you tell me some ways that the two are connected? DW: My solo work is more loop based and layer based, so the movements of the sounds are vertical melodies with rhythms building on top. A Ponytail song would be more linear, with melodic parts moving onto other melodic motifs–although there are a couple of Ponytail songs where I incorporated my looping and layering. “Beg Waves” starts with my looping and layering. There is another song called “Away Way,” which will be part of Ponytail’s next record. It has those elements, too. I felt uncomfortable bringing those elements to Ponytail because I always thought our drummer Jeremy was being compromised because of the restricting absolute tempo. GR: Is Ponytail the type of group where you talk about that sort of thing? Were there Some Kind of Monster moments? DW: I’ve talked to Jeremy and the band about it a bunch. I’ve been self-conscious since the beginning of the band because, in my mind, I wanted it to be purely democratic in songwriting. I thought I was putting too much of myself in to the band, and felt uncomfortable...
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It might seem weird that when my sister, my wife, and I brought our daughters to the Los Angeles installment of Small Gift, Sanrio's 50th anniversary event, that I would be the first person to see a friend. But it shouldn't have been unexpected. PK (another member of the Giant Robot softball team) also has a little girl. I told him, “Of course I'd bump into you here. This is where all the rad dads are.” You've probably already been informed about the event by a trend spotter or gear blogger, but this was a function that I was proud to attend as a parent and not a hipster. When we entered Santa Monica Airport's Barkar Hanger (previously best known for hosting the Barneys Sale), Lucia and Eloise were agog at the colorful array of images of Hello Kitty and her friends. The balloons made the ceiling look more majestic than cavernous and the makeshift miniature golf course provided a center to the carnival-style booths along the room's perimeter. Inevitably, the girls settled down and wanted to play some games. Tickets cost $2 and most of the games cost 1 or 2 of them. Lucia gave the spinner a whirll and won a first-place water bottle even though she preferred the third-place fan.
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There’s a lot of interesting stuff floating around the GR office, and this particular design has a story that should be told. The design has a retro feel because it’s based on the Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! videogame from 2005. Released for the DS exclusively in Japan, the game follows a male cheerleader squad team dedicated to helping people in times of crisis. Taking a high-school exam, making pottery, wooing a girl, saving the world from an asteroid–wouldn’t any task be a little easier if men with armbands were cheering you on in a synchronized fashion? The task of this article of clothing happens to be assisting Giant Robot. The woes of print publishing are well-documented and our particular challenges have been fully disclosed, so it was extra cool of our friends at Meat Bun, the masters of turning obscure videogames into hip T-shirt designs, to raise money for GR with this shirt. That’s actually Eric in the middle of the manga panel (I recognize the T-shirt he’s wearing, if not the expression) clutching back issues of GR. Can you identify them all? Find more information and images (or even buy your own) at the GR shop site. Support GR and keep the spirit of weird videogames alive!
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I've been wanting to see Best Coast play a headlining show since catching them at the FYF Fest, and finally got my chance last night at the Troubadour. The band has been touring nonstop since September's outdoor extravanganza, and last night capped off a sold-out, two-show, hometown stand. I was lucky enough to talk to the duo before the show, and Bethany mentioned that she actually asked to play the gigs there rather than play somewhere bigger like the Music Box or the El Rey. Cool, and kind of like The Clash booking a week-long run at the Palladium instead of doing a huge arena show, right? Opening the show were some friends of Best Coast, Dunes. My friend Ben immediately identified the drummer, who was in Mika Miko. She totally rips, and gives the dreamy, gritty, swirly sound some real power that simply buries more goth-y descendants of Siouxsie, Strawberry Switchblade, and so on. Short, sweet set by the awesome opener. I picked up their CD and can't wait to hear it. Best Coast were next, and anyone who underestimates Bobb's contributious to the band just needs to watch the setup. He breaks out, sets up, and puts the finishing touches on everything. He's also been in a number of experiment bands (such as Polar Goldie Cats) and plays really challenging solo stuff (in a bunny suit). You can check out his work here. It seems right that a hard-working, super-talented, lifer in indie music like Bobb is getting some run for BC these days–even if he gets edited out of interviews and cropped out of photos. I'm serious. It happens. Like their amazing debut album, the set was straight-up, rocked-out pop with no filler and no bullshit. Bethany doesn't waste time with a persona, rock poses, or pandering to the crowd. She, Bobb, and Ali simply rock out and have fun. It was nice to see them in a place with decent acoustics and some L.A. musical history–even if the lighting sucks and there's no way to take a decent band portrait with wack posters and cheap wood everywhere! But back to the music, the band gets lumped with other lo-fi groups like VIvian Girls and Dum Dum Girls, but the live show reminds more of The Muffs or sometimes even some of J Church's noisier songs. Super catchy and tight with a lot of bite. Best Coast also takes some hits for having such a consistent sound–consistantly catchy and rad, I think–but the last song really stood out. After a tasteful bit of rocking out (the equivalent of a huge jam for BC) Bethany stepped out onto the monitors and into the crowd. It was real cool moment touching on the Troubadour's rock tradition as well as the humble-but-awesome band's upward trajectory. Not toward cheesiness at all, but unfiltered honesty,untapped energy, new songs, and bigger crowds. The first song of the encore was just Bethany and an extra fuzzed-out guitar. Super atmospheric and arresting. A personal highlight...
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After Carey and Jamie's wedding, we had just a couple of days to do as much stuff as possible. One thing we wanted to check out was the Basquiat exhibit at the Modern Art Museum. Maybe it's a little weird for an American tourist to see an American art retrospective in France, but a lot of locals were doing it, too. The line was quite long. The difference was that I got a lot of the references, like Betty and Barney Hill, villains from Marvel Comics, or certain baseball players. It's crazy that someone scribbled on one of the pieces just the other day… I know Basquiat's stuff looks easy, but come on. You can't do that. It seemed like every time we went to see something, there was a bonus. This time it was an extensive Larry Clark photo exhibit. Because his raw depictions of youth culture and kids doing grown-up things seems so natural, it's tempting to dismiss them as gimmicky or sordid, but it can't be easy to depict subcultures without overdramatizing or cheesing out. The bigger prints were especially impressive, and best of all was the pet portraiture by his mom, which prefaced the collection. At this point, my family and I split up, with my brother, Dad, and me heading out to meet the cousins at the Catacombs. Yes, touristy but I had to see the famous tunnels and skeletons. On the way, we saw some of the ongoing public dissent over the proposed raising of the retirement age. In France, protest has nothing to do with bandanas or gas masks. It was totally organized, with marchers following a flatbed truck carrying a guy with a megaphone and a DJ playing the Village People's “Y.M.C.A.” at red lights between chants. I appreciated the concern expressed by some family members back at home, but there was really nothing to worry about. Nothing. Honestly, the protests and transportation strikes hardly affected us at atll. Back to the Catacombs… A lot of tension builds as you walk down stairs and through tunnels that become darker and damper. Finally, you reach a chamber with a few photos and some history, and that's where the piles of bones begin. I backed away from the first stack of bones only to realize there was more right behind me. There are no barriers between you and the remains, and it's only human nature (not necessarily decency) that prevented visitors from writing graffiti all over it (since it was everywhere else). As you go on, the way the bones are arranged becomes more stylized. The skulls go from being lined up in rows to forming crosses, chapels, and other shapes. My cousin Scott and I had fun shooting–in a respectful way, of course–and I was bummed that I forgot to post some of my better pics on Halloween. Hopefully I'll remember next year. In the meantime, if you need cover art for your new death metal album, let me know! Following the Catacombs,...
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