Three Stars: Wild Fictions
Covering a band whose members are still in college is inherently tricky. Sure, they could turn out to be Jukebox the Ghost (***), but there's that weird deadline that appears at the end of four years that can spell certain doom for bands whose members get jobs in other cities, are too busy with grad school to think about performing, and so on. But when such a band consists of a brother/sister duo, the members are less likely to lose contact, and the group, more likely to endure. Let's hope that this is the case with Wild Fictions.
American University students Chris and Kelly DeWitt combine a garage rock raw power with a tinge of the blues that would work just as well at a house party as at the Black Cat. Their energy during live shows and their overall skill level on the drums and keyboards overcomes any forgotten chords or technical difficulties. At last night's Mt. Pleasant Benefit concert, their keyboard broke halfway through one of their songs, but they finished it off as if it was no big problem. Chris also uses some of that energy to run the new, locally-based Dream Committee Records, which includes among its ranks one of last month's Three Stars artists, Black & White Jacksons.
Photo by Charlotte Kesl
Visit Wild Fictions online at: myspace.com/wildfictions
See them next at: The Black Cat Backstage on May 12
Questions for Chris DeWitt of Wild Fictions:
When did the two of you start playing music together?
I've been playing music in bands since the normal time, I guess, 16 or so. I started playing bass in orchestra, and then went on to electric bass, guitar, and then drums. Kelly actually got the drum kit for Christmas one year, and I promptly co opted it. The first band we played in together was the Sterling Stitches, which was a sort of Texas-meets-twee band, too unwieldy for its own good. I know it's been done by others, but we couldn't sustain a seven-piece indie-pop band while still in high school. We broke up officially in 2005, after recording and self-releasing Rosewater Wind. That's out of print now, but there are two MP3s at www.thesterlingstitches.com, if you're curious. I'm on bass, rhythm guitar and vocals, Kelly's on drums and vocals. We opened for Architecture in Helskinki once, though. That was neat.
But this incarnation of Wild Fictions started when Kelly came up to D.C. last September. I worked on a boat last summer, and wrote a bunch of songs in my head, and we used a few of those to jump start us. Kelly writes all the music, I write the words.
How long ago did the two of you move up from Texas?
I moved to D.C. about four years ago to go to American University. Kelly came up last August for the same reason.
Why did you choose D.C.?
Oh, let me count the ways. There are practical reasons and symbolic reasons. Practical reasons are too boring to to into, but suffice it to say, I wasn't of the mind to stay in Tejas, so away I went. Symbolic reasons, and here I will sound like an unabashed fanboy, I was really into Dischord bands and the whole "Revolution Summer" business. D.C. seemed to me this weird oasis that nobody where I was from really thought about much. It didn't seem like a real place. But here I am, pretty pleased.
How have you found the scene here to be different than the one where you grew up? What do you prefer about the D.C. music scene? What do you prefer about Houston?
If you want to split hairs, we went to high school in Sugar Land, about 30 minutes southwest. Tara Lipinski's from there, I think. I tried real hard to make that place cool, mostly basing my moves off the aforementioned "Revolution Summer," but there's no stopping the suburbs, you know? There was this independent clothing store run by this weird guy named T., and he let us play shows in the strip mall store after hours, which was cool. There were some really rad shows there, in retrospect. Eventually, T moved his store (named "Kourage") to the real mall, so that ended that. I'll say I never really felt a part of any scene in H-Town, even when we started playing in town more. If you're not a crusty anarchist, or if you don't worship at the alter of the Blood Brothers (those dudes were real big), it's like nobody cares. I, for better or worse, fall into neither category. Other than that, the damn fourth largest city in America is dead. It's OK, though, we have Beyonce.
As for D.C., it really wasn't until Wild Fictions formed that I started really playing out. I set up a bunch of shows at AU that nobody really cared about that I played with Sweet Teeth, but never in town. It's nice knowing a lot of bands, though. Sounds simple, but for pretty much all of college and in Texas, there weren't really any other bands to play with regularly.
Who do you count as your musical influences?
Let me first say, and I don't know why this is, but I listen to public radio pretty exclusively now. Ever since I moved into my new place in February, the damn radio's always on. Also, and this is embarrassing, I don't really buy records anymore, nor do I really download records, but I do download MP3s from music blogs. A la carte style. I feel kind of gross doing that, but, you know. The internet. That said, for me, here are my top four influences for WF: Les Savy Fav, Orange Juice, Pulp, Townes Van Zandt.
Talk to me about Dream Committee Records. Do you feel that running this locally-focused label goes hand-in-hand with what you're performing and creating as Wild Fictions?
Dream Committee started last summer when my friend Jeff and I, who happened to be in Zagreb at the time, felt an unparalleled fire in our bellies and decided to use it to power a hostile takeover of the D.C. music scene. In the end, a bunch of sound and fury, obviously, as school kind of got in the way. But we put out a pretty solid comp, so we're happy with it. I printed all the CD covers myself with linoleum blocks, Jeff did the booklet inside. I'm most proud of it because I'm so passionate about the bands on it. Patrick LeMieux is a guy from home with whom I've been playing music forever -- he produced and played horns on the Sterling Stitches record. His solo stuff is sick. My brother's also on it, with his Austin-based Shallows AD project. (He writes Austinist, incidentally.) This guy from Hazelton, Pennsylvania who plays under Herring Bones will blow your mind. It's great.
As for Wild Fictions, we would have done the band were there no label, and we would have done the label if there were no band. So in that sense, they're unrelated. But they share the same aesthetics, I suppose.
Who are some of your favorite bands to play with?
We had our best show ever at the Velvet Lounge with Lode Runner and FEVER. So, those guys, out of nostalgia, if nothing else. I really like playing with Black and White Jacksons, just because we're such good friends. Zacky and Tim and I play in another band, Sweet Teeth, and our bands share a practice space. My basement, actually. There's this band with whom we played one of our first shows, Each Other's Mothers, from Brooklyn. They're equal parts riot grrl and mathrock, but not in a soulless way.
What are some of your favorite venues in the D.C. area?
I really like alternative venues. FEVER used to have shows in their practice loft, and those were really fun. Basements are fun, so long as the kids don't come expecting a crust punk band. There will probably be no circle pits at Wild Fictions shows. But the Velvet Lounge is my favorite local club-type venue. Why there can't be more all ages venues in town is beyond me, but that's the way, I suppose.
What do you like to do when you're not playing music?
Well, I'm graduating in a couple weeks, so there's the school thing. I like listening to the radio (Marketplace and Morning Edition are my jams). There's also porch sitting and running long distances.