Wheels Of Love :: Tyvek's Kevin Boyer Drives Slow And Steady

Feeling excited about their debut LP and upcoming Montreal date (tomorrow night!It's gonna be MADNESSSSS!) I had a lil' chat with my bud Kevin Boyer , Tyvek frontman and all around sweetheart.



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Chloe: Hi Kevin how are you today?


Kevin : Today I feel sick, but a lot better than yesterday. I don't think it's swine flu, but all of the symptoms are present and it's starting to worry me. Couggh, haaakckckk, blaaaeegh. I'm just going to keep gargling.


In Paris , April 09.

Chloe: You guys recently went to Europe for the first time, how did that go?

Kevin : Europe was extremely fun. There were no major disasters. The beer was ten times better. I got drunk a lot more touring over there. It felt like a vacation, and I rarely felt hung over the next day (Europe has higher purity standards for beer and alcohol!). In general, people were hospitable, very friendly, we always got fed and had a place to stay. The hospitality seemed to be an almost required thing for them, like they had an obligation to take care of us. Which is fine, I'm not complaining.... you don't really feel that vibe in the states. Here no one cares if you've had dinner before you play. You're lucky to get a drink ticket in most American bars. And of course in some places we did meet people who were extremely kind and were just excited about the music and feeling that kind of universal kinship that comes from sharing the insanity of music. 

Being in a different country almost every night was nuts.... not knowing how the audiences would react or if people would show up at all. One way Europe is so different is that you drive like 100 km down the road, and you're in a different nation and suddenly the way the people interact with you and how they take part in the concert are just completely different from the night before. It always varied, and people often times seemed at odds with their neighbors. History weighs down on people there, much more so than here, like, "oh you guys played in Slovenia last night? that must've sucked! not so good, right?" No, it was a blast actually, but whatever... It's easy for me to forget that it wasn't too long ago that all of these countries were throwing bombs at each other. Maybe that's why people in North America seem a lot more laid back. People forget the past here. We just move and forget.

Playing every night with our french friends Cheveu was a treat. Playing with a familiar band every night lent some added perspective to the whole thing, watching how audiences in other countries reacted to them was great. Nothing made sense to me. Playing in places like Zagreb, Croatia or Benesov, Czech Republic was awesome. When we started Tyvek, the goal was to try to maybe learn ten songs well enough so that we all started and finished playing at the same time, and here we were in these extremely foreign places. It just didn't make sense, and I really felt free.
Another thing that added to the strangeness was that we were touring with a different line up, Matt and myself with our friend Ted enlisted to play keyboard. The other 3 Tyvek members all had to bail on the tour in the month/week before we left, so inviting Ted along was our last attempt to salvage the whole thing. Luckily, he could do it and was down to venture to another continent to play a prominent musical role in a band he'd only jammed with on two prior occasions, and hey he didn't fuck up too bad. The first night in middle of nowhere Switzerland was a hilarious debacle, and we all had our doubts, but we started to find some good jams and after a couple more shows the songs took on a new life with no bass, one guitar, drums, casio and vocals. I never imagined the songs being played like that, but the challenge certainly kept things interesting and definitely kept me on my toes.


In , April 09.

Chloe :  How did yous end up hooking up with Cheveu??

Kevin: We met Cheveu when we played together at a bar in Hamtramck Michigan called "The Locker Room." It was my first and only time at this bar... that was fall 2006. We played a couple of other shows with them (Green Gay, Wisconsin and then a show again in Detroit). We were fans of their music and so we made plans to tour the west coast together... that was may 2007. We had a great time... it's great to play with a band that you really like to listen to and watch almost every night, and personally we all got along splendidly. It's nice to tour with people you can just chillax with and get out the boom box and enjoy some Bar B Q and tunes. 

Chloe : Yes! I only like playing with bands you can chillax with! It’s what it’s all about!I wanna ask you about line-up. When I saw you guys in Austin it was as 3 piece , with Shelley on bass. But Heath told me he played some shows on the west coast a bit before that.So, who is in Tyvek right now? What line-up can we expect for your upcoming shows?



In Pittsburgh , January 07.



Kevin : Right now Tyvek is Matt, Shelley and me. Larry, Heath, and Damon are still a part of Tyvek in different way. It's been a transition. Larry's job is more serious and he can't get the time off to tour as much as we'd like. He's a great bass player and the coolest guy I know, and he has been very supportive. Larry and I have been friends since I was age 13, and he lives right down the road from me. Damon and Heath live in other states, and that makes things difficult for obvious reasons. The five us were rarely able to just play together in a casual laid back way. Heath and Damon are great musicians and friends, and I often miss what they added to the songs. Now, the band is back in a forming, embryonic state, and as new things emerge and become more defined I'm sure we will start adding more players to the mix here and there, which is what we've always done. Still, Tyvek sounds like Tyvek whether it's 8 people or 3 people.

Chloe : What's your songwriting process?

Kevin : The process is always different for each song, never the same way twice for me... sometimes I have something definite in mind musically or lyrically, like certain chord changes or words. Sometimes both. Sometimes we will just repeat a chord or a rhythm or a word or two and try changing them gradually, listening back to recordings, keeping what sounded cool, forgetting about the parts that didn't work. I find volume and rhythm to be the most inspiring things... everything comes after that, hearing loud drums and just playing guitar loud. Repeating the same things over and over along with the music, going through the day's events in my head, phrases, things that people said coming back to me. repeating them. Sometimes I'll be walking around and tunes and words will just start to play in my head. I think, "cool!" then I get home and try to play guitar along with the tune. Sometimes it sounds great, sometimes I forget about it the next day. I just try to keep an open mind and I think that songs can come from anywhere. Sometimes a song is written in a half hour sometimes it's years before an idea gets fully realized. One thing is for sure, I feel like I can't not do it and that I'll always be making music one way or another.

Chloe : One of the first things that drew me to your band was the fact that the lyrics are about pretty everyday , mundane stuff.You sing about cars, appliances , the urban landscape – Is your subject matter influenced by living in Detroit?

Kevin : The subject matter is definitely influenced by Detroit, but then I don't know if there's much stuff in the lyrics that couldn't be found anywhere in any city or in any case in someone's dream of being in a city. We get lots of precipitation here as I bet you do in Montreal as well. Winter is long: freezing cold, damp, tons of snow, constant cloud cover. In fall the trees are very colorful, lots of sun and crisp air, rain. Spring is damp and cold but light gets longer and warm air eventually pushes in. Summer is insane hot and extremely humid and long with lots of thunder storms, etc.. Our sound is influenced by Detroit.... Detroit's always playing on my imagination/nerves and it allows us to expand in whatever way we can into a space that's already charged with its own volatile atmospheric disturbances, independent, harassed, blamed, Detroit is the most dead on vision of the future I don't know what it is, it's certainly a headache, but it feels like nowhere anyone should live. Ha ha. But it's honest. Everyone knows they'd be better off somewhere else. Right now the national media keeps saying, "oh the government is bailing out Detroit..." What bailout? Detroit hasn't gotten any help from anybody for as long as I can remember, and helping out the failing car industry is a much different thing than helping out the city. Detroit's been bailing out America for the last 100 years, and this is our thanks, we get to be the canary in the coal mine. Detroit has always been at the forefront of any social/cultural advances in America and this is how we'll be punished, they're just going to try to hold us under water until we drown.



06


Chloe : How do you drive?

Kevin : I drive very carefully and slowly. I used to be a fast driver and when I was a teenager I was into drag racing and stuff, but now it's slow and steady. The world is a dangerous place and human beings are fragile: wheels of love! 



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S/T out now on Siltbreeze

TEENAGE PANZERKORPS

If you know me personally, it's no surprise that I'm writing about who I consider to be the best/most important/over the top band going right now: DER TPK. I grew up in a small suburban town ordered records out of Maximum Rock N' Roll in the early/mid 90's like some other mid-20 somethings I associate with, considering outlets for punk rock were few and far between in the stale Northeast region I called home (little did I know about Newbury Comics being an hour away). There was however a store a town away called The Lost Chord. The two weird owners stocked a nice selection of broken guitars, cassette tapes, punk CD's, records and DRI backpatches. They even had Guns N Roses pillows in the window display! The first record I bought there was an Exploited LP. I thought it was terrible and gave it to a friend. The second time I went in I purchased Crass' "Christ: The Album" on CD, but while flipping through the many discs I found some Skrewdriver albums. Could this be THEE Skrewdriver I had heard so much about? I mean these guys openly were nazis. I was shocked, uncomfortable, excited, nervous... interested even. I still opted for the Crass but brought tales of said Skrewdriver discs back to friends who had turned from punk rock to the working class Skinhead image and thought it'd be a good idea to go pick those discs up. Thirty seconds into hearing "White Rider", I was glad it wasn't me that wasted eighteen bucks on an import Skrewdriver album and went back to playing "The Greatest Working Class Rip Off" over and over again in my bedroom convinced it was the best song I had ever heard. But I won't forget those feelings holding that disc in my hands gave me. Shit was like a drug.

Fast forward to 2007, as I see the TPK 7" Skulltones released hanging on the wall. Besides having the greatest band name I'd heard in a long time, I couldn't help but noticed the imagry used for the cover and wondered "wait... are these guys nazis too?" I got echoes of those same feelings cruising through my body, transporting me back to being thirteen years old. All of that was shattered away when I finally picked up "Harmful Emotions" and let it bash my head in. Had Warsaw moved to Germany in their humble beginnings and recorded an album in an old war bunker before they became the most important band in the world? Probably not, but whoever these guys were I wanted more. It might have taken a while but "Games For Slaves" was worth the wait. The recording quality varies with a better production on most of the songs than on previous releases, while still maintaining a raw, cold take on early post punk. I worship any record that can make me feel good and bad simuletaneously, pushing my most awkward and uncomfortable emotions to the forefront while still allowing me to enjoy a great song.

A few weeks back I DJ'd a bar on Sunday because some friends needed a third. I put on my favorite song from "Games For Slaves" since too many people were dancing to the selections I had picked by Talking Heads and Blitz. Instead of making everyone run for the door, they danced like drunken fools, maybe even more into it than moments before. So in the end this record is good for not only making you hate how you feel in your own skin but also to dance to while shitfaced on a Sunday night before a hard weeks work selling shit on eBay.

”OBSESSIVE // REPULSIVE” (part 1). <<>>

I find it ironic that: sitting on the floor of my bedroom, surrounded by three walls and a closet lined with artifacts from more than half of a life spent on absorbing outsider music / culture and the active stock of an on going label, that I have a hard time coming up with modern groups or artists that I am just in awe of, or continuously blown away by from an “audience” point of view, while discussing the lack of such entities with a friend. Of course, the conversation started with a past example of Pantera. Not on my end though, mine is kept secret for now, as it would probably be considered much worse by most readers of the corner of the internet.

I don’t want heroes, but I truly enjoy the experience of being a fan, it feels rare. It’s incredibly rewarding to be heavily involved with so many things that you love, but isn’t it also a blast to be completely removed once in awhile, having the opportunity to indulge in the “dorking-out” endeavor? It’s not so easy. You want your band to play with the new one you just heard about or saw. You want to tell them how much you love them, but then they find out who you are (or you can’t help but offer) and their next record comes out on your label 6 months later.

Attempted here, this time around, is the declaration of obsession with projects and their objects, that have (little to) nothing to do with me, at least for now, and also fit within the parameters of this space. (current or currently relevant at least). And: Probably keeping it short because, it’s late. and also: because lately I am late (a lot).



TYVEK = TVK, TYVJK, etc. (from Detroit). Sometimes there’s these bands that have a truly strange damaged sound, but can somehow pass as a completely digestible “rock” or “punk” band. Or maybe: Sometimes there’s these very easy to listen to “rock” or “punk” bands that have these parallel aspects that are incredibly crooked or skewed. Tyvek don’t play very loud, and at heart, it’s fairly upbeat and catchy garage style stuff, but it’s their approach makes them so appealing to me. The gear sounds faulty, perhaps not as in tune as it should be, the vocals have an urgent yet appropriately “bored” tone to them, and the broken tape machine fidelity honestly seals the deal.

So: when friends ask “What new bands have you been digging?” – they’ve been rolling off my tongue a lot, usually with like-minded weirdos saying “Oh my god I know!” (right Chloe?).

One might argue that this band is receiving more than enough attention already, or that they are just another off shoot of the new weird “fucked up” pop scene (Times New Viking, Eat Skull, and so on), but speaking as a member of the human species that spent a good deal of time infatuated with Crypt and Estrus style groups in the 90’s (see Teengenerate, The Rip-Offs, etc) as well as art damaged punk and overblown noise rock, Tyvek are haphazardly skirting between two areas that I adore, and I can’t wait to catch them live. Check them out and then pick up the “Summer Burns” double 7” on Whats Yr Rupure and “Sidewalk” 7” on M’Ladys before they are gone forever, but buy more than one copy, because you’re liable to run the grooves down to nothing in ecstatic repetition. Recommended for ANYONE.

HARRY PUSSY (later material, now accessibly existing as a CD entitled “You’ll Never Play This Town Again” on Load Records – Miami, FL from 92-97). Harry Pussy’s “genius” is the most depressing series of recordings ever. Usually a band cuts a few disgustingly perfect records and then fizzle out, but Harry Pussy arguably did the complete opposite. There are countless records their first 2/3s of existence that are more “noise” than anything else, or just absurd guitar jamming that seems to just be there to annoy. Maybe it was, or: maybe I am being an asshole. (I don’t mean to be, I like things about almost every single one of those early singles).

However, at some point, I finally stumbled across a live recording (which I later pinned down to be a live 10”), and it was a completely different band. Perhaps 10 year before their time, Harry Pussy had crafted a unique brand of noise-rock / no-wave: two thick guitars that played highly jazzy and fastly noodled riffs with loud tumbling / stumbling / flailing drumming from Adris, while her voice would go from high pitched and ear-piercingly shrieking to deep guttural growls in split second. I was in love, and over the next couple of years, I slowly acquired some various later records that blow my mind to this day: their split with Frosty is incredible, for example, and I burned the 10”, a tour LP and some of the last singles for friends over and over (with hopes of one day getting a hold of them and offering to release a CD of all of that material (everything that’s not on the “Ride a Dove” and “What Was Music?” CD’s, which ironically is EXACTLY what Load Records did last year, out of nowhere. (slightly before, I found some old referenced to Menlo Park possibly doing it)).

What depresses me about how incredible this specific era is, is that I hardly know anyone that likes it, mostly because everyone had more than likely developed their own opinions by then, or are too young to even know who they even are. All too often, their name comes up, and people seem disinterested, saying that (or asking if) they just sorta masturbated on their instruments and did noise shit all the time – so I have to burn that same series of releases, and 9 times out of 10 they are blown away. It’s really exciting that these songs are actually available for people to hear now. I myself haven’t picked up the CD yet. Having all of the records on it and a DIY version of the same exact disc has made it less than tempting, but I have this self-centered ideas that at least 75% of the sales have resulted from my constant praise of their work over the years, and will eventually grab when there’s no one else around to convince to do so instead.

There are countless small things to note, things that make me smile and happy every time I listen to or pull them out to share with someone. You know, things that some lame wikipedia thing doesn’t fully show the person that just Soulseeks’ their “record collection”. The “”Fuck You” tour LP doesn’t say Harry Pussy anywhere on it. I’ve seen some copies that at least have a stamp on the white center labels, but mine doesn’t even have that. There’s a single that is purposefully designed to look like a bad punk record, a split 7” between two fake bands: Radiation Nation and The Toxic Drunks (and the art is complete shit, bad (aka perfect) ink pen on white, copied – you can find this in $1 bins all over the country instead of as a “Harry Pussy” 7’ on Ebay, trust me. And I myself just finally / recently scored a copy of their posthumous double 12” “Let’s Build A Pussy” on Blackbean and Placenta, perhaps the most annoying record of all time: digitally tempo changed clips of Adris screaming, stretching a few seconds over entire sides of each LP. You would think I am kidding, how did someone legitimize doing that? Yeah, they all sold, but wow. And: The cover art for “Ride A Dove” is unbelievable. At their finest moments, Harry Pussy still hold their own. Loud, fucked up weird bands constantly come and go, but few can even compare.

Absurd:


JACKWACKER (“Things From Inside Your Body” LP (Black Velvet Fuckere) // Indiana early / mid 90’s) – One day, a few years ago, when he was working at the local record shop (Eastside Records, which hasn’t been more than a five minute bike ride away in the past 8 years), good friend Dirty Dan (see: George Moshington) gave me a call because I “needed’ to come in and buy this LP that came in with the Revolver order.

Me: “Jackwacker? Fucking terrible name”. He assured me it was right up my alley, completely disgusting guitar noise / rock. When I got there and saw the cover, I was even more skeptical. Actually, that’s not true, the first thing I thought was, again: “Ugh, Jackwacker? Fucking terrible name”. The art looked like a bad central NJ mosh / metal band (like a b/w version of something on Acme, Edison, Ferret, ect), and trust me, I was there, so I would know (besides, Endeavor has funny song titles and good lyrics, pfft).

See:


I remember getting home and listening through the whole thing, honestly thinking it might have been a joke, in the sense that it was claiming to be lost recordings from the band’s existence in the early 90’s, and yet it was more devastating brutal and adventurous than 90% of what “weird” bands come up with today. A guitar and drums duo, with vocals here and there, Jackwacker played in this style that can only be poorly linked to (a combination of): Lightning Bolt, Sightings, Harry Pussy (see above!), Unwound and Today Is The Day. …I am listening to this right now, god it’s so good. I wonder how often I unknowingly rip this off? (shh shh shhhh). And the LP is not a universal wall of nonsense, there’s a great deal of catchy songwriting under the guise of severely damaged speakers and drums that are being demolished.

In the most appropriate manner, seeing as some nutso put this out, they have a myspace and some of their ancient live videos online! Check them out! http://www.myspace.com/jackwacker



I would be willing to be my life that it is very easy to get this record from the label still, therefore, you should. You figure if you are releasing an LP 13 years after a band breaks up, and few people had ever heard of them outside of the Midwest, that there’s bound to be an unhealthy supply of them sitting around,… but that’s the kind of insane and sick things you do when you are obsessed with all of this stuff (see: myself and friend Matt Colgrove, we’re doing an LP of a band’s 2001 demo, that played live under 10 times, no one has ever heard of, which we’ll be stuck with for years. Why do it? We want to. A better question: why not? (Those with reason need not answer).


That’s all for this time around. No set plan of attack thus far, maybe things like this sometimes and completely other things at others. Vague enough? Please feel free to get in touch for any reason what so ever, and thanks to Chloe for getting this thing together and rolling. I think it’s completely exciting, and there’s few people out there that I have as much faith in / admiration for, as I do her.

James Fella | Gilgongo Records PO Box 7455 Tempe, AZ 85281 USA