What does “lo-fi” mean these days? There have been crappy-sounding recordings for as long as recording technology has existed, but “lo-fi” usually implies an aesthetic decision distinct from limitations of gear or skill. Dylan’s so-called basement tapes—a series of casual, ramshackle home recordings he made with the Band in 1967, widely bootlegged before a tidied-up selection saw formal release in ’75—are probably pop music’s first canonical example of lo-fi by design. In the 80s, indie labels like K Records and Flying Nun turned lo-fi into a genre, transforming listeners’ notions of what a “proper” recording sounded like—tape hiss might as well have been as another instrument, and the four-track became a sacred altar. Lo-fi was often a social or political statement as well as an aesthetic one, a way to stand up for modesty instead of excess, genuineness instead of artifice. The style has had its ups and downs in the decades since, but it’s got staying power: current bands like Vivian Girls and Wavves have made sounding shitty into an art form.
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Bird Names are lo-fi maximalists, carving odd, ethereal art-rock out of strangely organic experimental soundscapes. Metabolism: A Salute to the Energy of the Sun (coming out March 8 on Northern Spy and already available digitally) is their most psychedelic and well-rounded album to date—this is music that was clearly labored over, as the band tried to make a huge-sounding record in tiny rooms. Campfires, aka Jeff Walls, is minimalist by comparison: the band makes fuzzy, raunchy, no-nonsense pop that sounds like the Kinks with a hangover and an AWOL engineer. On the forthcoming “Dusty Mansions” seven-inch (due early this spring on Small Plates), Walls is at his catchiest and trashiest.
Campfires is just Walls on disc, but for shows the band becomes a four-piece. Bo Hansen (who’s also in Heavy Times) and Nick Young take turns on drums and guitar, and Zach Lewis plays bass. Bird Names and Campfires got to be friends when everyone still lived in Chicago, and notwithstanding Lineal and LaVelle’s move they still sometimes play shows together—like Sunday’s date at the Empty Bottle.
Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s one of the best parts about music these days, that it’s so open for people to make it sound like they want it, and that there is a receptive audience too—that it makes sense to other people. Although on one hand, it’s sort of funny to me how much attention is spent on [lo-fi] now, whereas it’s really been around for much longer. Like growing up listening to the Oblivians or Guided by Voices made getting really weird tape-type sounds seem like . . . well, not familiar territory, but it was like a green light to just do whatever with it.
Right, or Pixar versus old Disney movies.
I know you self-produce most of your music. Is that the case with Metabolism? How would you describe your recording setup and your process of getting things onto tape?
Lineal: The songwriting process is recording oriented. Writing a good song is one thing, but projecting the aura of the song is essential to us. It enhances it, I think.
Sun 3/6, 7 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600 or 866-468-3401, $3, 21+.
