Long running Psychedelic Rock band Dead Meadow recently played Montreal and I was very happy to finally get a chance to see them live. They sure did not disappoint and I was even lucky enough to talk music with Jason Simon (vocals and guitar) and Steve Kille (bass). Check out their latest record The Nothing They Need, out on Xemu records.
What have you been listening to the most lately?
Jason : Probably the most for me right now is PHAROAH SANDERS. Mostly that record Thembi and Village of the Pharaohs. His classic records. I’m such a JOHN COLTRANE fans, he’s one of my ultimate favorites. Soul music always makes me feel better. Just the sound of him like trying to reach for the highest heights. I think Pharoah Sanders picked up on a particular strain of Coltrane and continue that out in a really interesting and melodic direction.
How does the setting affect what you’ll be listening to? What type of music would you listen mostly in the morning, at night, etc?
Jason: I don’t know if it really does. I think I just get into certain things. That’s what I want to hear for a period, you know? Of course, I feel like in the morning, you want to ease into something. I like Raga, I love ALI AKBAR KHAN. Music that kind of starts out slow, then it’ll build into something. I guess, maybe at night you you want to go a little more WU TANG or something like that. When you’re getting ready to go out.
Do you remember the first time music had an effect on you?
Jason : I think it always did. From the first time I heard something up on the radio. I don’t have any older siblings, my parents don’t really listen to music, so it’s really just what I heard on the radio that hit me. Then, in like second grade, my favorites were the metal band RATT, I loved PET SHOP BOYS. Still a Pet Shop Boys fan. The early stuff, they are so cool, such cool melodies. Eventually I got into BEASTIE BOYS and stuff like that. But VAN HALEN 1984 and MICHAEL JACKSON’s Thriller were some of my first cassettes. They were just so undeniable. As a kid, you heard Beat it and went “Whaaat?” 1984, that record’s great. We were just listening to him on this tour actually, going on reminiscing about liking Van Halen in our youth. And still liking them.
How did your tastes evolve from there, as you grew older?
Jason : I definitely went through GUNS ‘N’ ROSES and all that but at some point, you start discovering bands like BLACK SABBATH and LED ZEPPELIN and you’re like, “oh my god!” I remember when I first got into Led Zeppelin, it was when the four CD box set came out. It blew my mind. I actually stayed home from school the next day just to listen to it. There’s so many songs, there’s so many moves and vibes. Like, hearing No quarter for the first time was almost scary. You know, that sounds so crazy. It just felt heavy and the layers…that had a really big impact. Another band that we’d love so much and saved my youth a little bit later on is FUGAZI. Getting into the DC and Punk Rock scene. That’s where I met Steve. We were in bands that were doing different things, but definitely under the wide umbrella of like, Dischord record type sound. We’ve done that but then we got a little bit tired of that form and we started going back and listen to HENDRIX and Sabbath and watching Hendrix videos. Listening to Led Zeppelin and going “why don’t we try to do something like this? That seems fun.” To get back to this old 1970 style band, but do it in our own way. To try to make it so, though it may have retro influences, it’s not a retro band.
As a listener, is that your favorite format for a band, a three piece?
Jason : Um, no. Because this is what we do, I rarely listen to anything heavy. I don’t really listen to Led Zeppelin or Hendrix or anything like that these days. I want to hear Reggae, I want to hear Dub, I want to hear Jazz, something that challenges you and pushes you in different ways. I think we played so much Rock and Roll that we don’t listen to much Rock and Roll. My record collection is massive and all these shelves are Rock and Roll and then these two little ones at the end are my Jazz and Reggae and Indian and African names and pretty much all I listened to is right there.
What are some of your latest discoveries? Something that you had never heard before?
Jason : Oh, let’s see. I don’t know…There’s this really good F.J. MCMAHON record, The Spirit of the Golden Juice. Really cool. I guess what they call Outsider Folk, he’s from Santa Barbara, in the 60’s. I’ve listened to it a lot.
What would you say is the record that you’ve listened to the most in your life?
Jason : At this point, the last few years, it could just be A Love Supreme (JOHN COLTRANE). I feel like it all the time. When I’m driving around, I’ll wonder what to listen and I’ll just put that record on. I like the whole arc of it. I like how it moves. I had the CD of it in my car and for a while I just didn’t take it out. I’d be like, I don’t know what else to listen to, so it would just repeat and just go on through the day.
Steve : I listened to the White Album (BEATLES) over and over and over again when I was a kid. It was the record that blew my mind and really made me interested in music. I don’t know why. It’s weird to me now when I think about it.
So it’s not on rotation anymore?
Steve : No, but as a kid, I’d put it on all the time.
Jason : I also spent about two years of my life pretty much only listening to IRON MAIDEN. I still love Iron Maiden. Probably 13 or 14, Iron Maiden was the band for me. And they’re still awesome, I think that band’s amazing and there’s so Punk in a way because they never had radio support or anything, they just do their own thing. And they’re one of the biggest bands in the world.
What era did you prefer?
Jason : Well, back then, I probably went all the way from the first one through Seventh Son, you know, of all this and all that. I still like them all but of course, Killers just rules. That record, from any angle, is awesome. It’s more fierce and Punk, you know?
Could you name three or more perfect songs? Songs that you consider perfect in every way and say why they’re so special to you?
Jason : Okay, let’s see. Well, I’d say My favorite things by John Coltrane. Another one I listened to over and over again. Just the modal nature of it and how they can expand on, basically the drone of this whole thing. I’m waiting for the man by VELVET UNDERGROUND. It’s almost like everything else I listen to stands in between those two songs. Somewhere at each side of the spectrum. That song so good. Especially the really slow version that starts out The Matrix Tapes, a live record. So good. Oh, Baltimore by NINA SIMONE. I love that song. I listen to it all the time. Just perfect.
Is there any any bands artists that you missed out on when they came out and discovered way later? Or maybe a classic universally acclaimed artist that you never picked up on, until way to way later in life?
Jason : Yeah, growing up in the 90’s on the East Coast, what all the jocks and football players would listen to was GRATEFUL DEAD and I was still into Punk Rock. Grateful Dead was like PHISH to me and I was into FUGAZI and CIRCUS LUPUS so I wasn’t into that. That was a band that really crept in later, to become a band that I love, of course. They are amazing. But at the time, there was too much associated with them that I couldn’t get past.
Steve : it was really funny because you think about that band -I think about it a lot these days-, these were like weird dorky art guys and it’s so funny that the people that got so hard into them when we were kids in high school, were completely the opposite. You know, it’s like the NIRVANA quote, you know you’ve made it when you have all these people you don’t like at your shows.
Jason : Of course, I liked Nirvana back in the day. They were awesome but I had to almost put it aside because they were so big but I feel like, with time, they only sound better. When I go back to Nirvana, I’m like “man that was really great.”
Top five records of all time?
Jason : We’ve already mentioned a lot of those already but let’s see. Gotta have A Love Supreme. I guess we should put a LED ZEPPELIN record in there, Steve?
Steve : Sure. Physical Graffiti was one of my all time favorites. I kind of aim for the double album records obviously. It’s one of those things that blew my mind as a kid. Double records were kind of like this whole art piece, and it’s longer! There’s all this free time too. They have all this weird stuff that you’d never do when you’re just making a more strip down record.
Jason : Easter Everywhere by 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS. It always sounds good. That’s probably a top 2? That record could have come up on any questions really. All-time…as far as the BEATLES go, I was more on the Revolver side of things. I love Revolver.
Jason : I wonder what Reggae record I’d put as my favorite. Big Reggae fans, Dub fans. I don’t know. I always love the first BOB MARLEY record, Catch a Fire.
Steve : Such an iconic record that kind of established of that. Super good.
Jason : I like BURNING SPEAR a lot too. The early ones, the Studio One ones and then the first one produced by Jack Ruby, Marcus Garvey.
What are some of your favorite lyrics? Could be either a line, a song, the general work of a lyricist, etc.
Jason : I always like Shelter from the storm, that BOB DYLAN song on Blood On The Tracks. In general, that record has some of my favorite lyrics. Once you into Dylan, you can just go and go. His lyrics are so good.
Steve : That JOHN LENNON lyric, “People say I’m crazy doing what I’m doing”. Feels like it kind of means something right now.
Jason : Again, I love Easter Everywhere. Tommy Hall’s classic philosophy-inspired lyrics. I was a religion major in school so a lot of it is like, “Oh, he’s talking about that.” I love that. There’s so much depth to it. Absolutely love.
What’s your favorite means of discovering new music? Is it live, on records, through friends recommendation, etc?
Jason : Yeah, I think my favorite is when a friend comes to me with a recommendation. It happens often nowadays, in the Spotify age, where I get a text with a song in it. But my favorite way was just a friend going “Oh, I got this record, man. You should come over and hear it.” Just sit down and listen to the record, you know?
What would you say is the most memorable show you’ve ever seen?Steve : The GONG reunion show!
Jason : Good call. We saw a Gong reunion in probably 1998 in a tiny place in suburban Maryland. There’s maybe like 50 people there and they put on this mind bending, mind blowing show. All dressed up. It was crazy. I almost can’t even remember much about it other than just being like, “Oh my god, this is insane!” Just so much coming at you.
Were you already a fan or you just kind of went and it really came to life?
Jason : I was a fan. It wasn’t my favorite band or anything but I definitely wanted to see that. But this show was just crazy.
Is there any band that you’ve always wanted to see but never got a chance to?
Jason : BERT JANSCH, a Scottish folk guitar player. I just missed him so many times and I was finally able to go and then he was sick and I missed the next one. And then he passed away so I won’t be able to see him.
What is the most impressive that you’ve ever toured with? The one that you had to watch their set night after night?
Steve : The DINOSAUR JR tour was pretty amazing. Watching them and how they do stuff. The whole thing was pretty cool.
Jason : FUGAZI too, because they were just so impressive, how much they put into every show. Oh, and GUIDED BY VOICES! How much they could drink and still play.
Quite a list there! I’ve seen worse trio of bands to tour with, you know?
Do you have any unpopular music opinion you would like to defend?
Jason : I’m actually a Bull of the Woods (13TH FLOOR ELEVATOR) fan and people always talk trash on it because there’s not that much Rock-y on that record. But I love Stacy Sutherland. I think that records is up there with the other two as well but a lot of people write that record off.
Steve : Yes. It’s got a cool, syrupy sort of vibe to it. Cool bass and stuff.
Is there a band that you discovered live lately, that really just blow you away?
Jason : I don’t know about lately. We have our friends that we’ve toured with a few times called DALLAS ACID. They’re two synth players and a female drummer that sings and plays the gong. I think they’re a great band.
Is there any up and coming artists that you’d like to recommend?
Jason : It’s cool to play this tour with DOMMENGANG. You should actually check this band out. They’re really good.
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