It's Chris Grier's Vinyl District | The Record Store Day Interviews: Pat Noecker

"When I see a record now with interesting artwork, it immediately draws me in ..."

Today's installment: Pat Noecker from These Are Powers.

Pat's a Brooklynite who's orignally from a small hamlet in Nebraska, and his life has taken an interesting bunch of turns; he's a founding member of Opium Taylor (which you can read about here) and the infamous neo-no-wave pinups Liars, after which he went on to form the short-lived n0 things and then T.A.P. with Anna Barie in 2006.

All their stuff, from the cassettes onward, are pretty great, and their LP "Terrific Seasons" was played nearly constantly at Chez Grier for months on end after it came out in 2008. Back then, they seemed to me to referencing the sounds and vibe of early 80s downtown NYC (Sonic Youth/Swans/no-waveish stuff &c) and some Metal Box-era PiL, but somehow with even more spookiness and mystery thrown in. I loved it. And last week? Pat flowed me a track they're working on which takes things on a different path entirely - it's aggressively friendly, in a way, and utilizes sonic events that could have all come from drum machines and synths circa 1985, but which have nonetheless been arranged in a way that creates something more or less totally hyper-modern. It's witty, knowing, cool, and - for those of you who like to dance - extremely, extremely danceable. Which, to me, makes them even weirder, in a good way. "This is not one for the streets," he told me. "(It's) one for the club."

I interviewed Pat over Americanos at a coffee shop in Park Slope, Brooklyn. It's Ground Zero for the Maclaren stroller crowd, so I apologize for the screaming kids, etc., you'll hear at several points. Hey, it was either interview him outside, or do it inside the coffee shop and risk earning the almost certain annoyance of the 250-pound barista and the layabouts pretending to blog on their Mac Airbooks.

Topics and themes: African music, Pat's favorite record stores in New York City, future/primitives, Rush, dubstep, dancehall and other London musical genres, crazy album covers, and divesting oneself of vinyl one no longer needs.

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Chris Grier Interviews Pat Noecker | Part 1 - The Vinyl District Podcast (Mp3)
Chris Grier Interviews Pat Noecker | Part 2 - The Vinyl District Podcast (Mp3)