Trkane's Blog

Originally printed in the Eastern Echo, Jun. 28th, 2010

A collective sigh of relief was echoed by indie fans all over Ypsilanti when it was announced that Natural Monuments, a band composed of Alec Jensen, Travis Bravender and Aaron Quillen, would release a new two song single online—for free. “Alone, Etc.” backed with “Wite Out,” is a taste of what’s to come from Natural Monuments and was released May 18.

Natural Monuments burst into the local music scene with the “For Sanity’s Sake” EP in 2007. It brought its unique brand of indie-pop all over the state of Michigan and frequently performed at Ypsilanti’s Elbow Room. The EP introduced the band’s talent for writing catchy, distorted pop songs, which is obvious on the first listen of the songs “Alex Phelge” and “Rescues.”

“Alone, Etc.” and “Wite Out” are the two new songs and show a change in the band’s direction. Its ability to write damn catchy songs still shines, and the musicians’ talent still shows. But “Alone, Etc.” catches Natural Monuments at its rawest, in the production of the single and the execution of the songs.

The rhythm section sounds as tight as it ever has, but the guitars are jangly and simple, and you can tell that no one even dared to touch the vocals with auto-tune: the songs just wouldn’t have sounded right if they did. The production is nowhere near as crisp as “For Sanity’s Sake,” recalling the wide-open (and maybe a little tinny) drum tones of Death Cab for Cutie’s earlier albums. The guitar sounds come off sounding like something off “Summer Sun” by Yo La Tengo.

“Alone, Etc.” and “Wite Out” came out of writing music after a long hiatus. While rehearsing to play at a CD release for The Word Play, a Detroit indie band, Natural Monuments decided to write some new material — not for a release they would hopefully sell, but for fun. The result was a free single that was as surprising as it was satisfying.

“We decided to start off with a self-recorded two-song single that we would either try to get pressed as a 7-inch [record] or just post online for free,” drummer Quillen said. “We recorded the songs in June of 2009 and sat on them for a while. After a couple of false starts and miscommunications, we decided to put the single up online as a free download back in May. The process couldn’t really have happened any other way. Mainly due to distance and job situations, it’s impossible for us to work on writing and recording all together.”

Natural Monuments’ Aaron Quillen

With distance and job situations considered, it is a miracle the single came out at all. Singer and guitarist Jensen lives in an apartment in Chicago, while Quillen lives in Ypsilanti and guitarist Bravender lives in Fenton. The recordings were sent back and forth between Bravender and Jensen; Bravender recorded his guitar parts and Quillen’s drum parts in Fenton, while vocals, guitar and bass were recorded by Jensen in his apartment in Chicago.

The evolution to a raw sound traced back to the band’s prior recording experiences.

“Our experience recording our first EP, ‘For Sanity’s Sake,’ which features ultra-crisp, over-produced pop songs and one sort of emo song, basically is what made us end the band in the first place,” Quillen said. “When we decided to start writing songs again, we purposely wanted them to be a little more loose and a lot more rough around the edges. An easy way to do this is to just take matters into your own hands, and record the songs yourself.”

With the way that music is traditionally released with iTunes and Internet downloads becoming more prominent, Quillen can definitely see Natural Monuments continuing to release music in this fashion in the future.

“We don’t have the time or money, nor do we know the right people to even think about releasing an actual LP and to put all the work into trying to promote it,” he said. “So, for now, we will settle for these short little free releases as a way to share our music with the people who are interested, and also, selfishly, just get our creativity out. We haven’t discussed this intensely, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we release another one before the end of the year.”

Natural Monuments’ free single “Alone, Etc.” backed with “Wite Out,” can be downloaded at NaturalMonuments.bandcamp.com and songs from “For Sanity’s Sake” can be heard at myspace.com/NaturalMonuments.

This winter, Cursive will hit the road opening up for Alkaline Trio. I sat down with bass-player Matt Maginn to discuss the tour, fans, flat tires and Cursive’s future.

Cursive is getting ready for a pretty long tour. Are you doing anything differently to prepare for a tour like this as opposed to a headlining one?

MM – Not a whole lot different. We always like to learn a cover, I think we’re going to do that Sunday. Otherwise, we like to learn 30 or so songs so we can play a different set every night. But, yeah, its pretty much the same. We don’t have to learn covers really anytime soon, our set is pretty much the same.

With members of Cursive moving out of their native state of Nebraska, would you say that the dynamic of the band has changed live?

MM- Most of our time is spent being a live band, so we can just meet up. The dynamic is the same.

What songs are you finding are still your favorite to play live, and have you rediscovered any older songs?

MM – I think we like to mix it up – That is a good question. We played “A Red So Deep” which is off Domestica on our last tour, and that was particularly fun to play because it was a different, odd song. We haven’t played it in forever and it was fun to play it.

You’ve played a few covers over the last tour that included David Bowie’s “Modern Love” and King Crimson’s “21^st Century Schizoid Man.” How did those come about?

MM – “Modern Love” came about because it was a song we were really into. We grew up on 70s and 80s Bowie. King Crimson came up because we just recently became a bit more turned on to their music. We’ve always known about it and liked it but just got heavily into it lately. We were supposed to try to play it about 10% as well as they do (laughs).

“Mama, I’m Swollen” has a lyric where the narrator is stuck with a flat tire in Ann Arbor. Does Cursive have any positive Michigan memories?

MM – (Laughs) We have a ton of positive Michigan memories. I that happened to (Singer/Guitarist) Tim (Kasher) when he was young, he had a flat there. We spent a lot of early years playing through Michigan with the (Lansing band) Small Brown Bike guys, and that crew from Lansing. That is probably what ties us to Michigan the most, that crew and their friends and the music they make.

You guys have a pretty devoted fan-base. What is it that makes people act this way about Cursive?

MM – I don’t know. I think we’re very lucky that we’re able to share that with people. I would hope that its because of the high level of care and sincerity that we put into the music. Just as music fans, we want to write in a way that we will please our friends and other music fans. Hopefully that will create some sort of connection.

What will you take on tour to survive?

MM – Lots of vitamins, a lot of Emergen-C, I don’t know if it works or not, but it works for us, at least, even if its a placebo effect, it works. A lot of that, and a lot of clean clothes. Nintendo DS and an X-Box.

What can we expect out of Cursive in the future?

MM – I don’t know. We’re kind of taking it easy right now and thinking about writing another one. If we do, it will be this summer or next fall. If we do, it will be something more bizarre, more out there. Not heavy rock, but something very strange.

There is a definite shift in direction between the last few albums

MM – Yeah, for sure. I think if we do another one, it will be even weirder. Even a bigger shift in even a more heavy, I don’t mean heavy like hard rock, well, I don’t know, anyway. It will be more quirky, and bizarre. It would be a bit of a jagged zip in another direction.

Thank you for the interview, Matt

MM – Definitely, I’ll see you in Michigan