Tag: Shut Up and Listen

PLAYING BLOOMINGTON: Meet Fresh Kill

Jess Mann and Emma Johnson of Fresh Kill, one of the newest bands to appear on the local scene, began writing songs together almost immediately after Emma started taking drum lessons back in February. In the notably short span of time that has since passed, the two have been busy writing and recording songs, releasing an EP, and playing a string of shows around town. Still, the momentum that Fresh Kill has created over the summer is just ramping up as new music, more shows, and perhaps even a regional tour are on the horizon for this duo. Last week, I sat down with Jess and Emma over cocktails. As we chatted, I learned about their collaborative process, the underlying political motivations of their work, and their hopes to contribute positive changes to the Bloomington music scene and community.

As Fresh Kill is still in its early stages, Emma and Jess hesitate to place their music in any one specific genre. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it’s soft, but it always features tight vocal harmonies and poignant lyrics of a vaguely autobiographical sentiment. Beyond these trademark qualities, the two prefer to grow organically as songwriters. Rather than tethering themselves to any one style, Jess and Emma seek the freedom and space to move in whatever directions seem natural. During our chat, Emma reflected on her intent to expand the boundaries of Fresh Kill’s sound as they evolve. “We’re still in such an early stage. We’re still figuring that out and I imagine that the stuff we continue to write is going to change and grow. I’m personally interested in the drums, learning a bunch of different genres and then bringing that into whatever we create.” Jess concurred and added, “Let us have an album first.”  


Jess and Emma’s songwriting process is a collaborative one where each provides strengths that contribute to the final product. Emma writes the lyrics, but often enlists the help of Jess with the wording. Their compositions are also the result of a team effort. While their songwriting methods are fluid and varied, Emma generally provides the overall skeleton of a song or idea and Jess fills it in with guitar chords and an arrangement.

As soon as the two have finalized a new song, they waste no time recording it. While Jess originally went to school for audio engineering, she prefers a quick and dirty method of recording and mixing. She explained, “I don’t want to sit on it. Recording can be such a complex and lengthy process; let’s make it as quick and painless as possible.” Emma added, “That’s definitely what we do with our demos. I think maybe in the span of four hours, we recorded all of them. We even took a lunch break. I think they went online that night. I’m always really impatient and as soon as we do something that I’m excited about, I need to share it immediately!”

As our conversation shifted, we began to discuss the Bloomington music scene, and the two explained what they perceive to be its strengths and weaknesses. While Jess and Emma both acknowledged that they feel a great deal of support from many of the individuals who make up Bloomington’s tight-knit scene, it can often feel like a boy’s club, specifically a white boy’s club. Jess remarked, “There are always exceptions, but it’s still a boys club. I mean there are some really rad women, femme, and queer people playing music but most of the people playing music are white dudes. Some of them are cool and conscious of their positions, but a lot of them don’t see the point in actively including people who aren’t like them.” Emma pointed out that in Bloomington, it is still usually considered a novelty to have a show where white men are represented as the minority. “It’s not that there aren’t rad femme folks, queer folks, or nonbinary people making music, it’s that when it does happen it’s exceptional in some way. It’s very rare that there is a show that’s majority of those people playing where it’s not really intentionally curated to be that way.”

According to Emma and Jess, a true push toward making the local scene more inclusive involves both explicitly curating shows and other spaces that feature underrepresented musicians and also normalizing inclusivity at all shows. Jess and Emma are using their positions in the local scene to do just that. Jess was previously part of Missfits, a music collective for women and other gender minorities. Missfits, which ran for about a year and a half, had its final event last summer.

Fortunately, one year later, it seems that similarly motivated projects have risen in its wake and are shaking up the local scene. Both Emma and Jess are fans of Shut Up and Listen, a serial zine created by Jesse Grubb and Bethany Lumsdaine that provides a platform for underrepresented musicians. Jess contemplated the impact of these projects. “Sometimes you have to make a point and be really intentionally clear about why you’re pointing out the music that is made by the people who aren’t dudes, and maybe things have changed a little bit or maybe I just have a different perspective, but it’s cool to be at a point where you can write a zine about underrepresented musicians in Bloomington and not really have to make a big point out of that fact.” According to Emma, the two have a similar perspective when it comes to planning Fresh Kill shows. While Fresh Kill may not have explicitly political lyrics, the political identities of both Emma and Jess motivate all of their creative projects.

When they aren’t working on Fresh Kill, Jess and Emma, who are recent graduates at Indiana University, are busy with other jobs and creative projects. Jess works at Landlocked Music, one of Bloomington’s local record stores, and participates in several activist organizations. Emma co-produces and co-hosts Kite Line, a weekly radio program and podcast about prison issues, which she explained is an “attempt to create a platform and bridge for communication and dialogue with folks who are incarcerated or their families and people who have been affected by the prison industrial system to share their stories and break down certain stigmas.”  

When asked about new music, Jess and Emma excitedly assured me that they are writing and recording for a fall release. Although they didn’t divulge too much information about what that would entail, they told me to expect greatness and I’m inclined to believe them.  

Check out Fresh Kill’s acoustic set at Boxcar Books in Bloomington TONIGHT (August 15th) for a benefit show for the Charlottesville Anti-Racist Medical Fund.  

 

PLAYING BLOOMINGTON: Jessie Grubb & Bethany Lumsdaine of Shut Up and Listen

Shut up and Listen is a serial zine based out of Bloomington, Indiana that focuses on the (mostly local) underground music scene. Jessie Grubb and Bethany Lumsdaine are the creative partners and best friends behind the zine and radio show under the same name. Grubb and Lumsdaine have been self publishing and distributing Shut up and Listen almost monthly since October, cobbling together an eclectic mix of reflections on the local scene, interviews with touring and local artists, music recommendations, and event information that have been thoughtfully curated and compellingly written. Each issue of Shut up and Listen features bright and colorful cover designs and artist illustrations that both stand out on their own and solidify a cohesive aesthetic across all six (and growing) issues. Last week, I got the chance to chat with Jessie Grubb and Bethany Lumsdaine. We talked music, the local scene, and the future of Shut up and Listen.  

While Shut up and Listen officially began its run in Fall 2016 as Grubb and Lumsdaine’s WIUX radio show, their creative partnership goes back much earlier. The two have been interviewing local musicians since they met in high school, working predominantly with WFHB, the local radio station that runs teen radio hours every Saturday evening from 6pm-10pm, and Rhino’s Youth Center, which operates a youth podcast afterschool program on Thursdays. Since high school, Grubb and Lumsdaine have been involved in multiple creative pursuits. Jessie taught herself design through her participation in yearbook and newspaper in high school and now performs in the local synth-punk band, Clue. Bethany, who made her first zine in high school, was a printmaking major in the Fine Arts program before switching over to Journalism. Because of their like-minded creative proclivities, a partnership naturally followed shortly after meeting each other. They crafted the first time they hung out, a tradition that they have maintained over the years. The two even admitted that it is sometimes difficult to hang out without reverting to discussing their various work-related projects.

Grubb and Lumsdaine started to regularly attend shows together when Lumsdaine began studying at Indiana University and Grubb was finishing up in high school. They attended their first house show together on July 4, 2014 at the Dream (then known as Cram). As Grubb and Lumsdaine reminisced, they revealed some interesting insights about the Bloomington house show scene. According to Lumsdaine, “people really come out to house shows compared to venue shows here, but it can be really unwelcoming if you are not used to it or if you are going alone. It can be really intimidating.” There’s no doubt that walking into a stranger’s house is nerve-wracking, but she offers encouragement, too: “I started going to house shows in my freshman year and I just went alone – I went to every show that I could find out about.”

As Grubb noted, “There’s definitely a closeness because Bloomington’s pretty small and the music scene is even smaller.” Once one gets their bearings in the tight-knit scene, shows are easier to find out about and become more comfortable to attend. Unlike larger scenes, Bloomington house shows tend to advertise their addresses publicly. Shows are also advertised via public Facebook groups such as “The Bloomington House Show Network” and “Let’s Go! Bloomington Punk Shows!”

After getting past any initial awkwardness of navigating the punk scene, Lumsdaine and Grubb admitted that they prefer house shows over venues. “People here are excited to see the music,” Lumsdaine explained. “The biggest difference between the house show scene and a venue is that at a house show no one is talking during the band. It is rude if you are in the basement and talking during the show. That is a thing that I really appreciate – that’s what I go to shows for, the music. The fact that everyone else there is as excited and interested as I am is really nice.” House shows are also available to people of all ages, whereas most of the downtown venues are 21+.   

Lumsdaine and Grubb revealed that adapting their radio show into a zine was a natural move. The zine permanently documents their radio show work, which is only temporarily accessible via live listening. While zines had been on their radar for a while, the two didn’t feel as if they had enough of a focused topic to run with it until Shut Up and Listen came along. Both Grubb and Lumsdaine affirmed that Shut up and Listen gave them a path that allowed them to carve out a niche for themselves in the Bloomington music scene. “I feel like i have a lot more purpose at the shows and more of a reason to go talk to people,” Grubb admitted. “It is easier to talk to people because I do this zine.”

When I asked the duo to describe what Shut Up and Listen is all about in their own words, Grubb replied, “Shut Up and Listen is all about giving a voice to underrepresented musicians and artists.” Without missing a beat, Lumsdaine added, “creating a platform where they can be taken seriously.” According to them, these underrepresented groups include women, minority groups and gender nonconforming people. Underrepresented also refers to underground. Lumsdaine and Grubb make a point to feature rising artists who have typically gotten very little exposure and media coverage. Their goal is to find these artists and use the platform that Shut Up and Listen provides to elevate and support them.

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Bethany Lumsdaine (left) and Jessie Grubb (right)

Both have strong reasons for supporting local and underrepresented artists. Through their work, they are hoping to create a more inclusive and diverse local music scene. As Lumsdaine explains, “I think it’s important to see people like yourself on stage. It’s important to book shows that have a variety of people on them, not just one kind. I know I’ve been really inspired by seeing a woman do something that I only ever dreamed of because it seems a lot more possible. I remember the first time I saw a female-fronted hardcore band, and I was like, this is amazing, I could do that too… A ton of the women we interviewed, they started because they saw another woman in a band, and they wanted to be like that, or they realized that they could do it then. Representation shows people that it’s possible.”

Within a larger system that encourages women to tear each other down, Grubb and Lumsdaine have been working together to create a collaborative project that elevates them both. Together, the two of them research, plan, interview, attend shows, and write. They divvy up the writing and trade off on illustrations and cover art, but they make a point to avoid crediting each piece individually. Grubb explained, “There’s only two of us. It’s by one of us, it doesn’t really matter.” Lumsdaine agreed. “If somebody is like, ‘I love this article,’ it doesn’t matter. It’s a whole thing.” If my interview with Jessie Grubb and Bethany Lumsdaine has taught me one thing, it is that beautiful things can happen when your best friend is also your creative partner.  

After taking a short break to pursue other creative opportunities (writing pieces for Tom Tom Magazine, playing shows, and collaborating with local artist Amy O on her upcoming zine, Yoko Oh Yes, Lumsdaine and Grubb will be back with a summer issue of Shut Up and Listen this August.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

PLAYING BLOOMINGTON: Why Bloomington? An Intro to Hoosier Punk

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MX-80 Out of the Tunnel LP
The back cover of MX-80 Sound LP Out of the Tunnel. Photo by Kim Torgerson (c. 1980)

I moved from Brooklyn, New York to Bloomington, Indiana in the fall of 2014 to pursue a PhD in Ethnomusicology at Indiana University – in a nutshell, to study music within its cultural context. Coming from a background in music journalism and with a life-long interest in punk and underground music, I began to explore the Bloomington punk scene. What I found was a scene that looked nothing like the one I had encountered in New York, and certainly wasn’t trying to be that. I decided to make the local underground and punk scene the topic of my academic research and dissertation.

I include this information about my process and position not for narcissistic reasons, but for clarity and transparency.  Who we are – our positions, our experiences, our backgrounds – largely determines how we write, who we write about, and why we write. This column, therefore, is my interpretation and presentation of the Bloomington underground music and punk scene, and all of the weirdos and misfits that constitute it. But enough about me. What follows here is a (very) condensed history of the Bloomington punk scene and why it is so incredibly awesome.

1974. Patti Smith recorded Horses, the Ramones began playing at CBGB, and the New York Dolls released their second studio album. That same year, guitarist Bruce Anderson and bassist Dale Sophiea formed MX-80 Sound and began to perform their unique brand of art rock at local music venues and houses across Bloomington. By 1976, they were circulating a fanzine, Big Hits. Considered by many to be the pioneers of the local underground music scene, MX-80 was soon joined by proto-punk band the Gizmos (the first iteration), who began recording with Gulcher Records in 1976.

Collaboration took place between Bloomington punks and the punks of nearby Lafayette and Indianapolis. From Lafayette, post-punk band Dow Jones and the Industrials recorded a split LP, Hoosier Hysteria (1980), with the Gizmos (the second iteration). Bands from Bloomington and Lafayette traveled to Indianapolis to perform at the legendary music venue, Crazy Al’s. The Gizmos (1), MX-80 Sound, and then later The Gizmos (2), Dow Jones and the Industrials, The Zero Boys, The Jetsons, The Last Four (4) Digits, The Premature Babies, The Panics, Latex Novelties, The Joint Chiefs of Staff, The Dancing Cigarettes, and many others, constituted a vibrant scene that is still celebrated today through band poster exhibits, roundtables about the history of Gulcher records, reunion concerts, re-issues, and compilation CDs.

When listening to early Bloomington punk, the Gizmos’ (1978-1981) album is telling: Never Mind the Sex Pistols, Here’s the Gizmos. While the Bloomington and Indiana dirtbags were certainly influenced by the dirtbags in New York, London, and Los Angeles, they distanced themselves from these powerful urban centers and created a sound that was distinctively hoosier.

This remains true in 2017. A few times a week, punk bands can be found performing in houses and D.I.Y. venues across town, such as The Bishop, Blockhouse, The Void, Rhino’s, and The Backdoor. Bloomington is home to a number of punk and indie labels: The Secretly Group, Winspear, Plan-it-x Records, and Let’s Pretend Records are a few. Bloomington’s Landlocked Music and TD’s CDs & LPs sell local punk music, which is broadcasted through Bloomington radio stations WIUX and WFHB. 

A thriving zine scene augments and documents the music. The volunteer-run Boxcar Books and Community Center boasts one of the most impressive commercial zine collections that I have ever encountered. Zines like Neurodivergence and Shut Up and Listen are produced and celebrated through youth zine-writing workshops and zinefests.

It should be clear at this point that the Bloomington punk scene is rad; that such an unassuming Midwestern town has such a deep history with punk music, and that the scene is still flourishing today shouldn’t be surprising. My goal for writing this column is to shed a light on the scene itself, and all of the humans that make it special.    [/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]