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Phosphorescent's
Plays Two More Shows
Before Leaving Athens, So Flagpole Interviews... His Dog?
S he came to him; he had no choice. Out of a mess of bram
bles and river and all covered in ticks, Gracie Lou made tier
way into Matthew Houck's life. And for a handful of months,
they lived together in a small and yellowing house on Nowhere
Road, just northeast of town.
Gracie Lou is a dog; Matthew Houck is a singer. Houck, an
Alabama native, has for the past five years lived in Athens
and created music under the name Phosphorescent.
The debut album A Hundred Times or More introduced
Phosphorescent to Athens in 2003, and it was followed by
the 2004 EP The Weight of Flight and last year's moving full-
length Aw Come Aw Wry. The songs move from raucous blasts
of sound and emotion to delicate, folk-inflected songs—all
connected by Houck's tenuous, keening vocals.
The dog left a while ago; the singer will soon. Gracie
Lou, a young Husky with striking grey eyes, headed back
into the woods a week before Houck was about to leave on
tour. Houck plans to move to New York City in early 2007.
' It's treated me really well the last few times I was up
there," he says.
With Houck out of town for the past month on a tour of
England and western and central Europe, Flagpole tracked
down Gracie Lou on one of the last warm days of the sea
son. After convincing her that we would reveal no details
of her new life, we discussed Houck's new songs, these last
several shows in Athens and that sequined denim jacket
laced with Christmas lights that Houck is so fond of.
Flagpole: Can you talk a little about yourself? Your inter
ests, that sort of thing?
Grade Lou: Oh, you know, the regular stuff. Running
into the street Licking people's ears. Oh, and squirrels! Love
squirrels. Looove 'em. Chasing them, biting them, barking
at them. Lately, I've also found it very liberating to just run
around in drcles at very high speeds... it's a pretty good
way of tackling the existential malaise that I assume all
North American mammals in 2006 feel every now and then.
A good way to break out of the everyday blah, kind of. You
should try it some time!
FP: I totally know what you're talking about. That is fun.
How did you first meet Matthew?
GL: He was working at some building by the water...
FP: lhe Broad River Outpost?
GL: I guess. I'm a dog, so I don't really pay attention to
a lot of details. Anyway, I guess this was in July or so that I
showed up there. He seemed nice enpugh, and he scratched
me in the right places. By the way, this isn't weirding you
out? A talking dog and all that? Most people get a little up
set, so that's why I just keep quiet most of the time. But we
can all do this, you know.
FP: No, no, it’s fine. Please, continue. 5
GL: Right. So, I hung around there while he was working, p?
and at the end of the day, he seemed nice enough, and so I o
dedded to go home with him. I'm sure a lot of your readers £
know what that's like—the ladies, I mean, who've been in
similar situations. And then, when it was time, I left.
FP: Why?
GL: Well... I could tell a change was coming. At the time. I
wasn't really sure what was going on, but I didn't want to get
hurt, so I left before anything happened. Since then. I've hea^
that Matthew's moving to something called New York in a couple
of months. I guess it's time for him to go. Same with me, though,
so I understand.
FP: Heard from whom?
GL: The Athens area has an extensive network of chatty and
well-informed woodland creatures.
FP: What do you know about the jacket that Matthew wears
when he performs? The one that works best in pitch block?
GL: You mean the one that looks like the sky? With all the
twinkling lights? Not much, really... he already had it when I
showed up. He'd put it on at home sometimes, but I think he
mostly used it whenever he would leave the house with his guitars
and not come home until late. Do you know where it came from?
FP: He picked it up in Madison, GA, in March of this year.
Actually, he emailed me about it from Switzerland on this current
tour: "Walkin' around in those junk shops down there with a close
friend. Saw that glittering cowboy jacket hanging all by itself and
thought, whoa, now that's a jacket. And there was a big antique
full-length mirror, so I put it on and was checkin' it out. And it was
immediately clear that for this jacket to reach its full potential—I
mean, it was already pretty special—but for it to really shine, so to
speak, it was gonna need some alterations...
"Phosphorescent was leaving the next day for a short tour—just
a couple shows that would take us to Austin, TX, for the South by
Southwest festival. And those are some pretty long drives. A lot of
hours in the van. So! Packed a string of electric lights and some
tape and thread and scissors and spent those hours patching in the
lights. And by the time we got to Austin, it was ready to go."
He said the Swiss Internet cofi he was in smelled of dog food.
Maybe he was thinking of you.
GL: Aww, that's sweet.
FP: Can you tell me anything about Matthew's songwriting pro
cess?
GL: You should probably ask him about that.
FP: I did. a little bit. before he left for this tour, but he’s clearly
uncomfortable talking about his own work. He'd ovoid eye contact,
and use his fingernails to trace designs in the circles of water left on
the table from water glasses, and he'd squirm a little in his seat.
GL: Oh! Speaking of fingernails, it's been a while since I've had
a good scratching behind the ear. That's one of the several things I
miss about living with Matthew: guitarist fingernails. Would
you mind?
FP: Not a problem. So you don't know anything about
specifics for an upcoming album? He mentioned to me, "The
songs are taking new shapes of their own, and I'm trying to
honor that with the recordings and not push it."
GL: No, not really. Well, a little. Remember, I left
Matthew a while back, and so when I took off, he was plan
ning on having everything done before he went out on this
tour. In fact, there were a lot of nights when we'd be in the
room with pianos, guitars and wires on all sides, and I'd
really just want to go follow some smell from outside. But
from what I can gather, I think he's going to have another
full-length, with maybe nine or 10 songs. They seem like
they're longer than they have been in the past.
FP: New songs like "My Dove, My Dove, My Lamb" and
"Cocaine Lights" have poked their heads up in recent live
shows, and before he left for tour, Matthew played almost-
finished versions of the recordings. They do sound a lot... 1
dunno. fuller? With more atmospherics and vocal layers. But
surely you must know more details like release dates or labels
or something. You spent almost every day with the guy for
months straight. Can’t you throw my readers a bone?
GL: Ha ha, very funny.
FP: So the details of these last two Phosphorescent shows
before Matthew takes off: it'll be a full-band show at the
40 Watt on Thursday, and he'll be backed by Ray Raposa of
Castanets, former Athenian piano player Scott Stapleton and
a handful of other local and non-locals. And then this thing
at Flicker on Monday... do you know anything about that?
GL: He spent some time talking into that little plastic
thing he held to his ear about that one with some other
people, and it sounds like he's going to do something with
that Ray guy and two people called Liz Durrett and Jason
Molina.
Like maybe they'll all be playing solo or together or
something. But I'm not even really sure what "playing solo"
means. Is it like playing fetch?
FP: You seem to hove inconsistently varying degrees of
knowledge about human things. You know what a piano and
guitar are. but not a cell phone?
GL: Eh, what can I say? I'm a dog.
FP: Gracie Lou. thanks for taking the time to chat. Should
we. urn, shake hands?
GL: Sorry, I don't do that one. Sometimes I'll do "sit." or
"lay down," but that's about it. I find the more anthropo
morphic tricks a little demeaning.
Chris Hassiotis
—
WHO: Phosphorescent, Titans of Filth,
The Good Ship, Jeff Tallis
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Thursday, November 30
HOW MUCH: $5
WHO: Matthew Houck, Jason Molina,
Uz Durrett i Ray Raposa
WHERE: Flicker Theatre & Bar
WHEN: Monday, December 4,6:30 p.m.
HOW MUCH: Call
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