Turn Down The Guitars/Paths review from 7inches blogspot
The fine people at single piece slate have struck again, making vinyl records happen lovingly handcrafted in their shop, I imagine like a fine piece of New England furniture, or like a 7″ Amish collective, working only in the traditional ways of records, ignoring all technological advances…this time they’ve cut a split featuring Victory and Associates and Hurry up Shotgun who were nice enough to send 7Inches one of these clear, thick slabs of vinyl.
“Turn Down the Guitars” is the title of the rack from V&A and I know what you’re thinking, “But that goes against everything these guys stand for!”, and you’d be right, turns out this is a protest song against the sound guy at every venue telling them to turn down the most important element in their arsenal. Hilarious lyrically
he’s not horsing around / its a constant standoff / that’s the reason this song features the bass / no reverb is needed
but then they composed the track to take it one step further, punching in bursts of guitars over mostly bassline, finishing with some over the top Eddie Van Halen soloing.
What I can appreciate about these guys beyond the punchy power chords, and frontman Conan Neutron’s (name, perfect) attitude, is that they’re going for broke every time, like Hot Snakes, that massive post-punk energy – the all out party time rock, loud as hell…obviously that’s why they run into trouble with the man trying to bring them down! At the risk of alienating future venues they want you to know they want to rock god dammit! Any band would appreciate this, and should be covered on personal mix tapes and passed around back stage at Bannaroo.The Hurry Up, Shotgun track “Paths” is dishing out an aural beating of funk-punk, a mix of complex repeated guitar melodies, that progressive bassline and interlockign percussion all off on it’s own…which right away takes me back to the days when I still respected Red Hot Chili Peppers and their combination of styles I hadn’t ever come across before. Borrowing across genre’s, taking their own idiosyncratic parts from everything. I guess you could even go further back with combination’s that Fishbone or Bad Brains pioneered. The energy is similar, and you can hear the decades of rock that came before it in the changes. They don’t ever let up with this completely bizarre core rhythm and frantic, almost metal vibrato vocals. It all comes down into a slow melodic power drone to take the track out on the metal side of things. These two have played together on local bills and this split single brings both of their comparably intense performance styles in friendly competition with each other.
East Bay Express reviews TDTG/Paths
Victory & Associates and Hurry Up Shotgun, Turn Down the Guitars/Paths. Lofty concepts undergird this deceptively simple split seven-inch by two of the Bay Area’s grittiest garage bands. Hurry Up Shotgun provides screamy, dueling-guitar rock in its song “Paths,” while Victory & Associates favors catchy riffs and asymmetrical rhythms. Victory singer Conan Neutron’s voice falls somewhere between a chant and a yowl. -Rachel Swan
Conan Neutron interview in Platon Mag
Conan Neutron is interviewed by the brand spanking new bay area centric web music zine. Platon
In a way this is a concept band, Victory and Associates… it’s in the name, we’re loosely affiliated with success. A lot of the songs with this band are coming from a very sincere place and I think that throws some people off, they immediately are suspicious or think that it’s corny. What we’re trying to do is write stuff that uplifts, kind of a “get tough, get through it” kind of scenario. Some folks get it, some don’t. It can be frustrating that people are constantly looking for a catch or an angle. The angle is that we are trying to make powerful, uplifting rock music. We aren’t a freaking Christian band, we aren’t posi-core, but man… it’s damn rough out there, I don’t know if you’ve noticed? There are hundreds of thousands of bands that write and have written love songs, and there’s a proud history of bands pointing out problems, especially in punk rock. Ok, ok, I get it. And I’m not saying we haven’t or won’t do that, but right now it’s not the mission at all. A lot of bands are almost interchangeable, and that’s a shame. Bottom line: We’re not trying to bring the bummer, we’re trying to do something different, and it’s happening whether people like it or not.
SF Examiner live review and pictures
Comprised of ex-members from Mount Vicious, Replicator, Ned, Ghost to Atom, Radio Crimes, My Sunny Disposition – you get the picture. These fellows are no stranger to the rock. This is yet another project for frontman Conan Neutron who, on the heels of releasing the anti-Rove compilation Courage and Consequence: The Unabridged Audio, must have had one more thing to get off his chest. And that he did. Victory and Associates have all the flavors of the best anthemic rock while leaving behind the synthetic lyrics and sophomoric dressings that usually go along with such song writing. The song Thousandaire tells you with unabashed mockery, “you may doubt my success but baby I’m a thousandaire. Millions can bring the bummer but man I could hardly care. I am not much for preaching but lethargy’s a sin. Don’t just prepare to lose you must prepare to win”. Couple this with big crowd pleasing guitar riffs, smart drumming and an urge to fist pump and you get a resounding win all around. If Cheap Trick got into a car crash with Danzig while listening to the song Kids in America, you might end up with Victory and Associates.
Feature interview with Victory and Associates frontman Conan Neutron in the Eastbay Express
Thanks to the East Bay Express’s Rachel Swan for the excellent feature article in this weeks paper.
I big feature article in the East Bay Express about this record just came out.
Warning: plenty of explicit language within.
Observeth:
Bands of Courage and Consequence
by Rachel SwanIndie rocker Conan Neutron has colorful ways of describing George W. Bush’s former Deputy Chief of Staff, Karl Rove. He offered a few examples over beers at the Uptown Nightclub: “Master of lies and manipulation.” “A man with blood on his hands.” “Shameless tactician.” “Lying salesman.” “Gandalf behind the scenes.” “Unconscionable, soulless asshole.” That’s only the beginning. Neutron also faults Rove for “all these wars that we’re still embroiled in, our economy being screwed, and gay marriage being used as a wedge issue.” Then there’s that “porcine face,” which, according to Neutron, resists even the softest lighting or the finest airbrushing techniques.
“Did I say ‘cocksucker?’” he added, his voice rising to a crescendo. Mere mention of the name “Karl Rove” is enough to get his blood boiling, and spur another fusillade of insults.
Neutron’s well-entrenched animus stems from eight years of watching Rove serve as “Bush’s brain,” by issuing terror warnings and launching warrantless wiretaps, among other offenses. Like many of Rove’s detractors, Neutron blames the erstwhile Chief of Staff for engineering our current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet, what really got Neutron was Rove’s recent comeback attempt, in the form of a new, self-aggrandizing autobiography. The title was the real clincher, Neutron said: “Courage and Consequence? Are you kidding me?”
Even as the ink dries on the pages, Neutron is planning his own project to coincide with Rove’s March 9 book release. Originally, he wanted to create a one-off band that would perform songs about Karl Rove, and show “what the book should actually be about.” The idea was to create a “Google bomb,” like the one that Richard Kim and Betsy Reed created with their Sarah Palin parody, Going Rouge. When Neutron broached the subject with friends, their response was so overwhelming that he decided to take the idea one step further. He devised an entire compilation of songs that go against the Rovian grain. He named the album Karl Rove: Courage and Consequence, in the hope that it would steal hits on Google and perhaps even trick right-wing book-buyers into purchasing the wrong product. Barring a lawsuit for copyright infringement, Neutron says his main goal is to mess with the retired politician “in some small way” — even if it only amounts to a few less book sales, or a slightly lower Google ranking.
To Neutron, Rove’s memoir and book tour is the equivalent of playing a show at the Hemlock Tavern: “You pump the show. You set it up. There’s a solid routine to it that basically includes a lot of people kissing your ass.” Thus, he continued, even a beleaguered politician can find ways to steer clear of critics. There’s a real danger that Rove could successfully reframe history, or at least capitalize on a legacy of bloodshed and domestic surveillance. It’s enough to get an activist rock musician hot under the collar. “He needs to be answered, and I don’t see that happening from anyone else,” said Neutron. “So I’ve elected myself curator of that.”
In fairness, he has all the right job qualifications. Thirty-one-year-old Neutron grew up in Modesto, where he was the small-town misfit with blue hair, guitar skills, and erudite parents — they named him for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. (He added the Neutron part in 1996 and won’t reveal his real surname.) At age seventeen he moved up to the Bay Area, took a job in IT, and started the first in a series of offbeat rock bands, called Replicator. As frontman and lead guitarist, Neutron gave the band its distinctive nerdy stamp, writing songs with odd meters and Philip K. Dick references. Replicator enjoyed an eight-year tenure in the local club scene, and paved the way for Neutron’s second band, Mount Vicious (which broke up in August). In 2004 Neutron helmed Bands Against Bush, a precursor to the Rove project with its own, similarly seditious compilation. Neutron said that Bands Against Bush landed him on a federal watch-list. He was sure of it, he said, because in 2005 all his parking tickets went immediately to collections, and he received jury duty notices about every six weeks. He couldn’t pass through an airport security checkpoint without getting pulled out of line.
To complete Courage and Consequence in time for Rove’s book tour meant Neutron had to follow a pretty aggressive timeline. He hatched the plan on November 29, which allowed him four months to corral the bands, record the songs, mix the album, and set the marketing campaign in motion. Neutron also formed a new band, called Victory and Associates. Thus, he got to contribute an anti-Rove ditty of his own, entitled “Lies and the Lying Liars That Sell Them” (a spinoff of Senator Al Franken’s new book). Victory and Associates will perform its first show on March 18 at the Hemlock, several weeks after Courage and Consequence hits the streets.
It seemed improbable: a protest album with no financial backing, no promotional machine, and a deadline that brought everything down to the wire. But Neutron saw himself as a fearless David ready to fight Rove at all costs, even if it meant selling plasma to press up a thousand copies of the LP. Even he was surprised by the sudden onslaught of support. Thirteen bands signed on, ranging from local favorites (Heavenly States, Poster Children), to relative unknowns (Lambs of Abortion, We’re Gonna Fight the Eskimos Next). Some came so late in the game that Neutron had to request a prerecorded, premixed track. Even more shocking was the response from fans, who made pledges on Neutron’s web site to help fund the album. Neutron responded, in typical fund-drive fashion, with a tiered gift system. Five dollars guarantees a digital download, twenty dollars gets a digital download and copy of the vinyl LP. The sky’s the limit, he said. “Donate a thousand dollars and you get to write something in the liner notes, a kiss on the forehead, dinner with me — I don’t know.” As of last week, the album was already 34 percent funded by outsider donations, enough to give Neutron a little courage and consequence of his own. Or as he put it, “It takes a village to fuck an asshole.”
About
Victory and Associates write rock anthems that you didn’t know you needed. Take the parts of huge classic rock you may actually WANT to turn up, mix it with the parts of indie rock that ROCK, funnel it through post-punk sensibility with driving, energetic force and you are on the trail to victory… and associates. This is the sound of giving a high five, this is the sound of being alive. Victory and Associates have been around the block, know their way around a good song and endeavor to deliver something exciting to both musician and non-musician alike. These things are FACTS.
You can’t stop the signal, you can’t stop the noise.