The July issue of ANTIGRAVITY will hit today, July 1st. Look for the print edition this afternoon at a place of interest near you! We have interviews with Studio In The Country’s Ben Mumphrey, The Living Room Studio’s Chris George and Daniel Majorie, Part 2 of Ballzack’s chat with Biff Rose, a Bonnaroo photo wrap by Zack Smith, the debut of our new comic strip, Firesquito, a preview of Saints Training Camp ‘08 and much more!

You can download the July issue here!

Help us celebrate our 4 years in New Orleans at Handsome Willy’s with NOLA Rising, DJ sets by AG writers, cheap food and drink and, above all else, cake. We’ll go from 7pm ’til around 10 or so!

Interview By Jason Songe

Photo by Zack Smith

I’m intrigued by the Bad Off because they seem like an anachronism, especially in New Orleans: a hard rock band of sex, glitter and sleek clothes who feature a lead singer that could’ve been the speed freak love child of Mick Jagger and Steven Tyler, plus a guitarist who not only knows every Jimmy Page riff but also writes solos like him. Of course, there’s more to them than that, or else I wouldn’t be writing this. Singer and leader Erik Corriveaux has the best and most expressive rock voice this side of James Hall, and the songs are head-bangingly catchy, hooky but also sensual, mystical, and full of wonder. The band’s an efficient live machine, a sculpture of razor sharp bends and breaks.

That’s also a good way to describe Lady Day, their first full-length record, which blasts into overdrive with opener “Bombdrop” and doesn’t let up through the next lean string of eight songs. Three or four years ago, the Bad Off was known more for their Led Zeppelin tribute than their originals, but with Lady Day they arrive with a soulful, stunning, and filler-less debut that energizes thanks to the positive lyrics (imagine a motivated hunter of experience).

Corriveaux started tracking Jody Smith’s drums at his Gentilly home the week before August 29, 2005 and didn’t pick up the record again until April of 2006, at which point Smith was gone permanently to New York City (and since replaced by former Rock City Morgue drummer Keith Hajjar). Bassist Dan Lauricella tracked his parts at Piety Sreet Studio with engineer Wesley Fontenot and was, as Corriveaux put it during our interview, “up Jody’s ass” with his playing, which sounded better then than it does written out. If you listen close to the bass guitar, you’ll notice Lauricella is right on top of Jody’s kick drum, which creates an awesome airtight power throughout the album. Next up was the rhythm and lead guitar of Brian Berthiaume, which, along with the vocals, was recorded at Misha Kachkachishvili’s Axis Studios in Metairie.

Corriveaux was more than gracious through the interview process. First, I broke my recorder at Pravda, so we went to his house and recorded the interview on ProTools. He gave me a CD, which didn’t work, so he gave me his iPod with the interview on it. After I frantically called him, believing I’d broken his iPod, he said, “Did you push the button hard enough?” Sure enough, I hadn’t.

ANTIGRAVITY: Talk about the difficulty of singing lyrics that come from a place you’re no longer at.

Erik Corriveaux: First, I can say that I don’t have much difficulty with that. Although a new set of emotions might be correlated to the topic of a song, at that point, as a songwriter and a performer, you have to take on the role of telling a story.

AG: Take on that character even though that character is in the past?

EC: Yeah. Just because one is not in love anymore doesn’t mean that they can’t sing about love. I am one who gives a lot to the song because it came from a place (of feeling). It’s the songwriter’s responsibility to express that character. There are certain songs that definitely have different emphasis on them. (more…)

An Evening Of Soul On Film, The Big Top, 7pm; myspace.com/djsoulsis. DJ Soul Sister screens two of her favorite documentaries in “An Evening of Soul on Film” to raise money for The New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic. The first documentary is Wattstax, directed by Mel Stewart. Wattstax, sponsored by southern soul record company Stax, has long been known as the “Black Woodstock,” and in 1972 they the “black-is-beautiful” outlook of African-American culture was captured. This film features such greats as Isaac Hayes, Rufus and Carla Thomas, and even acts by Richard Prior. To celebrate the 14th anniversary of Ghana’s independence, the second film of this series, Soul to Soul, brings pop stars from all around the United States to Africa to play a fourteen-hour concert, where over 100,000 Ghanaians attended. Carlos Santana, Roberta Flack, Wilson Pickett, and many Ghanaian faces light up the screen in this documentary. —Christopher Woods

Since it’s anniversary month here at AG, here’s another June blast from the past: our Keith Knight interview from June 2006. As I said in the post about this month’s cover, I felt like that issue was really worth celebrating since it was our first anniversary after Katrina and we asked Keith Knight to draw me and editors Noah Bonaparte and Patrick Strange into the mix, which he did brilliantly. Keith happened to be in New Orleans that month to promote The Beginner’s Guide To Community-Based Arts to the librarian’s conference, so we put together a slideshow for him at Handsome Willy’s.

Here it is:

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We’re in an era of unparalleled awareness for the art of cartooning. Between George Bush’s uncanny ability to stimulate political cartoonists, the now-infamous Danish Muhammad cartoons, animated series based on strips like Aaron McGruder’s Boondocks, and–while much tamer to audiences, for sure–the domination of the box office by comic icons Spider-Man, Superman and Batman, more people are aware comics exist than ever before. One comic strip that can run the gamut of emotions all the above can inflict is Keith Knight’s The K Chronicles, a unique foray into politics, pop culture and human emotions. Knight is just as likely to reference Star Wars as he is to mention his mother, and in any given strip you may be treated to the lighthearted optimism of “Life’s Little Victories,” a theme that celebrates when the simple things in life go your way, or an unabashed send-up of Dick Cheney’s latest hunting misadventure. When you may least expect it, though, Knight can deliver a heartwrenching or heartwarming slice of life, whether it’s his wife’s cancer-scare (she’s okay), the death of an influential person (like comic great Will Eisner) or a tribute to the people of the Gulf Coast.

Knight’s not a Johnny-come-lately, some hanger-on to McGruder’s faux-provacativeness–he’s been a professional for over twelve years. He started out as a caricature artist in his hometown Boston and, once he moved to indie-comic Mecca San Francisco, worked his way from ‘zine artist to full-fledged newspaper comics page contributor. Since the K Chronicles became entrenched in publications nation(and world)wide, he’s started a second strip, (th)ink, a comic done in single panel style (a la a serious Far Side) meant to take on race and political issues. He’s also illustrated a book called The Beginner’s Guide To Community-Based Arts, a book that tells the stories of several activists who use art to make their communities around the country better.

The man’s got legs, as they say, and one method he’s used to accumulate fans is his slideshow, an indie-comics convention favorite. Knight hosts the show like a comedian, moving through pics of his strips and elaborating on their history like the college professor you always wished you had. ANTIGRAVITY has been on the Keith Knight train since its beginning–The K Chronicles was the first strip we decided to run, and when an opportunity to host a slideshow presented itself we pounced on it. AG presents the Keith Knight slideshow in the latter part of June, and we spoke with Knight about his growing up in Boston, working for ESPN and MAD, and some of his more controversial strips, like the one where he smoked crack with God. (more…)

Mudhoney, Birds of Avalon, One Eyed Jacks, 10pm, $18. Any elitist worth his/her flannel will most likely have something to say about pioneer grunge band Mudhoney’s new album, The Lucky Ones. These Seattle natives were the ones that Kurt Cobain cited as an inspiration but then they totally, like, sold out in 1992 when they went to Reprise Records. They went back to Sub Pop in 2002 but released Since We’ve Become Translucent, which was so commercial and had nowhere near the raw power of Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge. Under A Billion Suns came out four years later and had a more progressive rock sound. Some critics applaud Mudhoney for growing, others say the band has simply sold out and is washed up. Whatever their opinions are of Mudhoney’s recorded music, skeptic and elitist alike are still itching for the show. What would it be like? Will they stick to their new, prog rock-style stuff? Will they play “Touch Me, I’m Sick?” Whether you’re praying for disappointment so you could tell everybody that you called it or secretly hoping the show will make you feel like you’re sixteen again, this show is worth checking out because, you know, it’s, like, Mudhoney! —Caroline DeBruhl, Photo by Shawn Brackbill

Check out the process behind our 4-Year anniversary cover by Caesar Meadows!

Interview by Leo McGovern.

One of my early interviews for ANTIGRAVITY was with Susannah Breslin. I’d heard she’d recently moved to New Orleans from Los Angeles, and was anxious to interview her and help promote the New Orleans Bookfair, which she had a scheduled reading at in late-October 2004. We sat in the back courtyard at the old Z’otz in the French Quarter. Her short story collection, You’re A Bad Man, Aren’t You, had recently been released.

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ANTIGRAVITY: When did you move to New Orleans?

Susannah Breslin: September 2003. My intention was to stay here for a year, but now my guess is I’ll stay for two years. The weather here is unbearable. I can’t live here permanently, but it’ll be longer than a year.

AG: What made you decide to move to New Orleans?

SB: I was tired of being in Los Angeles. I’d never been to the south before. I knew it was warm and cheap. It had a seedy reputation. When I figured out the abbreviation was “No L.A.” it seemed like it was divine. [Laughs] It was a way to get away from the competitiveness that was L.A. and just try and focus on writing the book instead, rather than keeping my head above water as a freelancer.

AG: You’ve said that instead of “feel good” movies, you prefer “feel bad” ones. What exactly are “feel bad” movies?

(more…)

I’m a fan of “process” commentaries, where people go through the steps of how a project evolved into the finished product. Our June cover is a celebration for AG’s 4th anniversary and is drawn by Qomix artist Caesar Meadows, so I thought I’d post some of his sketches how the ideas evolved into the actual cover. (more…)

June is ANTIGRAVITY anniversary month, so to help celebrate we’re blogging some more classic AG pieces. This one is our first ever cover story, an interview with Glorybee from June 2004. Glorybee was the perfect choice for our first cover, as they were well-known around New Orleans and certainly visually interesting. A side note is that they were my first choice to be the musical headliner for the first Alternative Media Expo (in June ‘03) but had an out-of-town show on that day. The first year or so of AG isn’t available in .pdf format, as I lost the computer they were stored on in Katrina (and stupidly hadn’t uploaded them to our website), so we’re having notable pieces like this re-transcribed. Which is nice because they can also be re-edited—keep it a secret, but I don’t think I knew as much as I think I did when this whole thing started.

Anyway, where the magic began…

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Glorybee is a trio of musicians based in New Orleans and own a sound best described as “rap/electronic/sonic death on helium.” Their live show is a unique spectacle, one where the unthinkable not only can happen but usually does. Be careful if you see one of them, even on the street, as their soldering banter can easily suck you in, after which you’re stuck like a fly in the proverbial web of Glorybee. Featuring three main members (Nasty Burga’ Kang [Bass/vocals/percussion], Lord Hoffa [vocals/keyboards], and Masta Boink [keyboards/programming/drums]), Glorybee is one of the truly unique bands in New Orleans, relying not on horns and someone else’s name to carry them, but on their own ideas and techniques. Their new CD, GYB: The First Power, is set to hit the streets June 1st, with the GYB CD release parties on June 25th at Dragon’s Den and June 26th at Chelsea’s in Baton Rouge. (more…)