About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 12, 2011)
V NOAH KALINA the e&thenS p© headliners featuring international icons and reunited fosfc nffiygxfflltel Bob Mould's career in songwriting with legendary punk trio Hiisker Dii, '90s alterna tive band Sugar and as a solo artist has had a common theme that is itself a golden thread connecting all great rock music: your life is important. Through the adversity of having to help pioneer the then-uncharted punk touring circuit, Mould, along with bandmates Grant Hart and Greg Norton, always wrote songs that were personal anthems easily applied to the listener's own experiences. Hiisker Dii's 1984 double album, Zen Arcade, traced the movements of a Holden Caulfield-esque protagonist whose story com bined the melodic chime of classic rock with the blistering angst of hardcore, and after that, rock music was literally not the same. In his new memoir, See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody, Mould examines his experi ences with those bands, his struggles with his sexuality and other trials he has faced as an indie-rock workaholic. One wonders if, while etching a path out of his band's home of Minneapolis into the world, he ever expected that his work would be so important to so many people... "I think it's a surprise for a while, and then I think you start to believe your own press," Mould laughs. "With Hiisker Dii, I felt we were always pretty fucking good. Especially being at a place like SST [Records] where you're never better than second banana, because it's always Black Flag first—let me rephrase that: always Greg Ginn first—you're not really used to shining. And when you start to reach a big ger audience, and people start talking about it on a bigger scale, it's all a bit of a surprise at first. And then you go, 'Hmm. Maybe we are pretty good.' "It's easier when you look back to see when the moments happen," he continues. "When you're in it, you're just plowing ahead, 100 miles per hour. You don't really stop to consider the importance of what you're doing. I knew in the time between two Hiisker Dii records, Metal Circus and Zen Arcade, that we were at a moment where we could really make it important." Currently, Mould is touring in support of his book, but also allowing himself some room to breathe. "I'm 50 years old; it's nice to take a little bit of time to enjoy the benefits of everything that I've done," he says. "I may not tour as hard. I may not write as many songs, but I spent three years working on that book; that was a hell of a lot of work. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I think of is: 'What am I doing today with music? Is it an office day? Is it a writing day? Is it a rehearsal day? Do I have to be at the airport?' I pretty much jump out of bed and am doing something immediately that has to do with my work. I'll always be like that, I think." [Jeff Tobias] Finishing one of Terrapin's seasonal pump kin ales in the backyard of Will Cullen Hart's home, it occurs to me that I could probably sit here and say nothing at all. Talking to Hart and Bill Doss of The Olivia Tremor Control is like that—a perpetual motion machine mob bing about a vacuum. Spiraling essentially out of nothing, you can find yourself digressively discussing The Beatles, minimal composer Alvin Lucier, or Hart's cat, which taught itself to flush toilets. But it is at the point where Doss and Hart start talking about the stereoscopic vision of the sperm whale that I realize the men are essentially talking between themselves about themselves—and no less, their creative process: "Stereoscopic? It's two images that you put in a View-Master, and when you look at both of them at the same time, it gives you the impression of a 3D image. With eyes on both sides, whales see two separate images in one, too," Doss says. "And your brain makes that happen," Hart adds, completing his partner's sentiment. And Doss and Hart do this constantly, finishing each other's sentences, expanding on the other's wild abstractions. In fact, it wouldn't be much of a simplification to say The Olivia Tremor Control operates much like a stereoscopic device. Of the two chief song writers, it has been said that Bill Doss is the poptimist—the fan of The Zombies and The 13th Floor Elevators who crafts the three-min ute sunshine pop goodness—while Hart is the experimentalist: "...fuck it up and mess with ► continued on p. 19 DOW NTOW N MILlIDGEVlUl S 2011 MUSIC UNEUP AWVCRAFtS MQ COOK Off WO ZOHf OftM CAI SHOW MUSIC OHW $5 ^ OCT downtown milledgeville ★ DEEPROOTSFESTIVAL.COM ★ 1W Dim NUN m UWE RUCKUS OCTOBER 12,2011 FLAGP0LE.COM 17
