Three Stars: The City Veins

See them next: July 7 at Fort Reno and July 15 on the Black Cat's backstage

Visit The City Veins online: on MySpace or at their blog, thecityveins.com/blog

Buy their album: via PayPal

Questions for The City Veins:

Give us the genesis story of The City Veins.

Aaron Tarr: There are several stories to tell, because these sorts of things always involve revisionist history. The band started as myself, Adam Bayes, and Charles writing a 10 song demo, pretty much just for the hell of it. After we had completed that, Adam went on the internet to find a drummer--though Charles was very hesitant about the whole thing. That's how we found Spencer.

The background to all of this is that Charles and I had played in bands since High School, and our last college band did not end well. It was really painful, and I think Charles and I were both worried about starting another band. But Adam was intent upon getting it done, so he put everything into motion. He'd never experienced bad band drama, so he had no reservations. This is a lesson he learned later.

Spencer Vliet: The one thing I'll say about how The City Veins came together is I was really impressed with the 10 songs those guys put together before I joined. I listened to them non-stop in the car for about 2 weeks before ever practicing with them (or even meeting Charles). The songs were very well constructed and none went on too long, sort of leaving me wanting more. Also, I liked that Aaron sounds like a man when he sings. Too many male rock singers today sound whiny, nasal, or feminine. It was a nice change.

Charles Gray: Like Aaron said, this band was formed mostly against my will, and better judgment. Our last band did not end well, and I had (have?) some resentment about that. I remember watching "Spinal Tap" after Aaron and my last band broke up, and not finding it funny at all. It just seemed too familiar, but if you ask any band that has been around for a while about "Spinal Tap," they will all agree that it is too real to be funny. I wouldn't say that Adam forced me into the band, but he did a lot of cajoling. Once we started, I got into it. Mainly because we played live a lot when we first got going. We firmly believe in playing live a lot. Practice is only so good, but you really learn what type of band you are on stage.

Where did you all come from before — biographically, and musically?

A: Personally, I started taking piano and voice lessons when I was 6 so I could sing in the church choir, as everyone in my family has been doing for the past 60 years in America. When I was 12 I started playing guitar. In this band I play bass--which is really my preferred stringed instrument. I pretty much peaked as a guitar player at about 15. I've lived here my whole life---save for four years at Hamilton College (with Charles) and 18 months in Liverpool at the University of Liverpool. I always mention that, like it gives me some musical credibility. The truth is that I barely played any music there, though that is when I started playing and learning the bass.

S: Ironically enough, I've sort of come full circle with the city of D.C. I grew up around Allentown, PA, but when I was 8 years old my family came down here for vacation. We had lunch in the Hard Rock Cafe one day and something about seeing all the rock memorabilia on the walls made me ask my parents if I could take up the drums. I always kind of wanted to play the drums, but the Hard Rock made up my mind. My parents tried to pull the whole "if you still want to play drums when we get home, then we can talk about it" in hopes that I'd forget about it, but I asked them about every day for the next week (usually multiple times) until they caved in.

As for my musical career, pretty much the norm. I played in a band in high school (ironically enough with the brother of These United States guitarist Tom Hnatow, who's also from the Allentown area), and played a little bit in college (nothing you could call a band though). I moved to D.C. after college, played in a band called Gone By June for a while (which, living up to its name, was fairly shortlived) and found these guys on Craigslist.

C: Personally, I started playing the guitar when I was 13. I didn't play in a band for a while, so I gravitated towards classical and jazz guitar. Mainly, I wanted to play stuff that sounds interesting by itself. Most of my training is classical guitar, and that is why I don't play with a pick. I started playing the bass so that I could join Aaron's high school band. I also play the piano, some mandolin (if I could find my mandolin), and didgeridoo. Our most recent release is actually the first recording I have done without a didgeridoo on it. I actually recorded some didge for a song for this EP, but we ended up cutting that song.

So who are some of your favorite bands? What kind of band do you what The City Veins to be?

A: Well, you're likely to get three different answers, because all of us hear something different in what we do. I only really value creativity. When I think we are at our best is when we make something with a good melody that also manages to really take risks with song and chord structure. I would like us to be listenable but stretch things from the mainstream. I also think Indie Rock--which is supposed to be against the mainstream--is becoming too homogenized, and I think we would like to mess with that a bit. I'm not sure we've succeeded--I've been in bands that always aspired to be underground but never really managed to be inventive enough. But we'd like to be a band that comes up with really good ideas and turn them into songs, not a band that writes songs with traditional and re-tread melodies and structures. I think by remaining true to our DC roots we can make that happen, not necessarily in sound but in ideology. Bands like Q and Not U, Beauty Pill, Smart Went Crazy, and Fugazi's "The Arguement". We'll never sound like them, but their approach towards creating something new and embracing a good idea of any kind when it presented itself was totally spot on.

S: As far as bands we all love, I'd say The Clash, The Beatles, Bowie, Radiohead, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Ted Leo to name a few of the more prominent ones. My own favorites besides those are Tool, John Coltrane, The Roots, Led Zep and Dave Matthews (which I realize don't go together very well). Growing up in the suburbs I was raised on more mainstream radio and didn't get real into the whole indie or punk rock scene until a few years ago. Charles and Aaron grew up here, so they're more into the indie scene.

If we had to pick a model for the band, I'd pick the Clash. Not that we want to rip them off (we're definitely not that good), but I love the way they never stopped experimenting with new styles and sounds. Joe Strummer in particular did this right up until his death.

A: To add to my point, I'd like to echo Spencer's sentiment about styles and sounds. That's basically what I was getting at.

C: As a District native, I love Fugazi, Q and Not U, Medications, and Dischord in general. Joe Pass is also a big influence on me, as is Mauro Giuliani. Giuliani wrote a series of 120 finger exercises that I have played more times than my roommates throughout the years should have had to endure. Considering how much I have stolen from them, I should say that Richard Rodgers and Cole Porter are big influences as well.

Between your first recording and your current album and shows, people have been noting that you're becoming somewhat of a math rock band. What do you think of that?

A: It's funny---we've never really thought about it that way, nor did we try to re-invent ourselves in that vein. I think you could certainly say that we've become much more creative because that's what we all mutually value. Also--and this is not a slight on him--but Adam was really the pop element of the band. When he left and we reconstituted ourselves, I think we were always more likely to lose that element in favor of alternative beats and structures. But the simple truth is that we've just played together more now so we actually take some time to write songs.
However, I actually like the math-rock label. In our first review for this band we were called "Highly-listenable Indie-Pop", and I got really scared.

S: Aaron and I were just talking about this the other day. I don't really have an opinion about the label one way or another. Some of our favorite bands have gotten that label before, so we don't think it's a bad thing (of course those bands do it better than us).

I'm not sure it's totally accurate though. We have been messing with odd times lately, but not because we want to prove anything. We just get bored with 4/4 sometimes and it's fun to try out something new. There's been a lot done with 4/4 in rock music over the last 60 years or so, and sometimes it can be frustrating to come up with something sounding original. So odd times can provide an interesting element, or take something fairly ordinary and present a new way of looking at it.

That said, I don't think we could ever be a pure math/progressive rock band. Our choruses are still in 4/4, and so is 75% of our music. We might be experimenting more, but If we ever write a song in something ridiculous like 17/8 or 5/24 I want someone to beat us mercilessly.

C: We just like working in different time signatures. Like Spencer said, it is just more interesting to us. I would actually say that we are trying to not be math rock. I think that the focus of a lot of Math Rock is the time signatures, and to appreciate Math Rock you have to appreciate the alternate time signatures. My goal, and I think ours, is to write songs in alternate time signatures, but not have anyone care that they are in alternate time signatures. I would prefer that the audience appreciate a good beat and groove, and not spend their time counting in their heads.

At your Iota album release show, you added some players — including horns. What effect do you think it had on these songs you'd written as a 3 or 4 piece band? Is that kind of expansion something you'd consider revisiting on future recording or writing?

A: Definitely for recording...Yes, I think we'd consider doing that again. We all really loved it, just that huge wall of sound. I don't think we're about to become the Arcade Fire or Rusted Root anytime soon, though. The fact as that we're comfortable with the 3-piece dynamic in terms of the mix of personalities, and I don't think we'd like to mess with that. But when we finally get around to doing a full-length album I think we will probably bring some other musicians in to do some work.

C: We got the guests, mostly because a lot of our friends had seen us play the same songs over and over again. We assumed that they were as bored with some of the songs as we were. Bringing in the horns, or percussion, just added an extra bit of excitement.

The guests were great, and we are definitely going to have them, or others, in the future. That said, it has taken us a while to learn how to play well with each other, and I am proud of our current performances.

You guys have been keeping a blog throughout your recording of this latest EP and more. Is the hope that it gives your fans a closer connection to you as a band? A better understanding of the process of being a band doing things on their own?

S: Charles is best to answer this, being our blog guru.

My thought is that the blog is a good way to connect with people on a more personal level. When you start off as a new band, no one has heard of or really cares about you. The blog started as a way to get people interested in us in the early days. It's an interesting thing to try to launch a band from scratch, and you can sort of see our evolution through our postings. On top of that, it's just a good place to get those voices in your head out every now and then. We pretty much post about whatever's on our minds, band related or not.

A: I think maintaining a blog serves many purposes. First, everyone seems to be doing it these days. It seemed as if we'd be developmentally behind if we didn't. Second, yes, we'd like to have a strong connection to our fans. It's been a funny process because at first the only people reading it was us and our parents. My dad frequently comments on what I say when I go over for dinner, and for a while my mom claimed that this is how she kept up with my life. But now I think we actually have some genuine fans separate from our friends, and hopefully they'll get some insight from it. Ultimately I think we'd like to make the blog a bit more living and interactive by adding some cuts from practice and things like that. By for right now, it's just our small portal to talking to our fans. Actually, we're bad at talking to people in social settings, so this is the way we communicate best. I sort of find it cathartic, too.

S: I don't know what Aaron's talking about when he says we're bad at talking to people in social settings, but he's speaking for himself on that one.

C: We are going to lose money on our new EP. I am almost sure of it. This is amazing because we managed to produce our CD pretty cheaply. The only way to turn playing music into a career is to get a bunch of people to come out consistently to see you live. The blog gives people a connection to us, gives them a reason to keep coming back to our site, and hopefully makes them more likely to come to, not just one, but many shows.