Tag: Spaceface

Categories
Music Music Blog

A Very Spaceface New Year’s Eve

I caught up with Jake Ingalls of psychedelic party-rock groups Spaceface and The Flaming Lips to ask him about Spaceface’s New Year’s Eve extravaganza at the Young Avenue Deli. The singer/guitarist/sampler/songwriter took a break from vocal warm ups in the studio to tell me about the holiday concert, the band’s new album (halfway done), and their recently released Christmas single.

“We’re finishing up a new record,” Ingalls says over the phone, presumably tucked away in a corner of the studio. “We have six or seven songs pretty much done.” The group’s 2017 offering, Sun Kids, was an explosion of flower child optimism and rainbow rock — and one of this music writer’s favorite records of the year. It even features Julien Baker on the track “Timeshare.” The new record promises to be something different, even if the psychedelic bent is familiar to longtime fans.

Forced into new territory by the departure of their drummer, Ingalls says he’s begun incorporating samples into the music. “I’m always learning from the Lips,” Ingalls says, explaining that he takes inspiration from the elder group, if not direct input. “Necessity is the mother of invention,” he adds, explaining that using samples is something he’s wanted to try for some time but felt hesitant to commit to doing. Ingalls adds that the inspiration is about “not feeling dismayed, finding a workaround.”

Besides sampled drums and meticulously layered acoustic guitar strums, Ingalls is using field recordings of particle beam dumps supplied by research scientists. The samples, Ingalls says, sound like something right out of Star Wars.


“This summer, I got to go to the Large Hadron Collider,” Ingalls recalls excitedly. He visited the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, where the singer from Spaceface met scientists who study space. Some of them, Ingalls says, also sing in a group called Piña Collider.

So the new Spaceface song “Piña Collider” is named after the only premier scientist-staffed cover band, Ingalls explains. “It’s an ode to the hardworking scientists at CERN.” Spaceface released the single “Panoramic View” in October 2019, and the audience at the New Year’s Eve concert may be among some of the first to see and hear the new songs performed live.

Spaceface is no stranger to holiday performances. “We just put out a Christmas single,” Ingalls says. The song, titled “Christmas Party (Nice & Naughty),” is a holiday-themed party jam and has been gaining some traction on streaming services. “It’s kind of funny that the metric for success for an unsigned band these days is if you get put on a Spotify editor’s playlist,” Ingalls adds, happily noting that “Christmas Party (Nice & Naughty)” made its way onto one such playlist.

“I feel lucky that in Memphis we’ve become this holiday act,” Ingalls says, referencing the band’s yearly Halloween and New Year’s Eve concerts, which have grown to be full-blown spectacles. Spaceface, a group already well known for their over-the-top live shows, confetti, costumed dancers, and mind-bending light shows, always ups the ante for the holiday concerts. Ingalls says, in all seriousness, that fans can expect to see a “double-necked guitar with lasers on it.” The band, he says, will play dance-inducing rave songs, and Ingalls will spin a DJ set after the band plays.

“We love playing there,” Ingalls says of Young Avenue Deli, a Midtown venue that has seen more than its fair share of alternative rock acts, both local and touring. Think Dinosaur Jr., Built to Spill, Black Lips, Native Blood, HEELS, and Amy LaVere. “We’re excited to break in the new sound system.”

Spaceface performs at Young Avenue Deli, Tuesday, December 31st, at 9 p.m. $10 in advance, $15 at the door.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Spaceface Halloween at Crosstown Theater

CREDIT: Erika Mugglin

Spaceface is bringing its annual Spaceface Halloween concert to Crosstown Theater this weekend, and Jake Ingalls, singer and guitarist for the psychedelic rock band, promises an epic party.

Spaceface, known for its visually appealing backdrops, will be turning the theater into a Stranger Things-themed upside-down Snowball Dance (season 2, episode 9, for reference).

“Our goal with every show is, from the get-go, for people to walk in and see a completely different place than the one that they’ve been in before,” says Ingalls.
Erika Mugglin

To further set the scene, Spaceface will be dressing up like Stranger Things characters.

“I’ll be dressing up like Steve,” he says. “I’ve already got my Scoops Ahoy outfit.”

The other band members will dress like Hopper (Eric, singer), Eleven (Matt, guitar), Billy (Griffin, bass), Dustin (Peter, keys) and Barb (Big Red, drums).

For the first half of the show, Spaceface will be accompanied by the UpsideDown Ensemble (a 10-piece ensemble from Memphis Symphony Orchestra), two or three extra horn players from Louise Page’s band, and some Demogorgons.

“My friend Natalie is flying down from Grand Rapids,” says Ingalls. “She’s made a lot of props for us before, and she’s made an actual Demogorgon costume that she’ll be doing wacky stuff with.”

Ingalls says this show will double as a single release party for retrofuture tune “Panoramic View,” which will be dropping the day before along with a music video.

“For people who’ve been seeing us from the beginning, it’s actually one of our first songs from our first show that we played at Poplar Lounge back in 2012,” says Ingalls. “We sort of just let it fall by the wayside for some reason.”
Spaceface Halloween with The UpsideDown Ensemble, Crosstown Theatre (right behind the Central Atrium?), Saturday, October 26th, 7-11:30 p.m., $10 in advance, $15 at the door.

Categories
Music Music Features

Spaceface release one of spring’s essential albums

Jake Ingalls couldn’t help being a little late calling me for our interview — he got hung up trying to survive sound check with the Flaming Lips at the Major Rager festival in Augusta, Georgia, where strong winds threatened to topple the stage. (I’m sure all those amplifiers, pounds of confetti, facsimile UFOs, and other Lips paraphernalia didn’t help either.)

Ingalls, along with band mate Daniel Quinlan, called me not just to discuss the perilous nature of festival stages, but also to dish the dirt on Memphis-based Spaceface’s new full-length record, Sun Kids (self-released). The sunny psych-rock band formed in 2011 or so with just Matt Strong, Jake Ingalls, and Eric Martin. Later, in 2012, Peter Armstrong, Victor Quinn Hill, and Daniel Quinlan joined the psychedelic trio. In time-honored Memphis tradition, the band shares most of its members with another local act, Strong Martian, and Ingalls, as previously mentioned, is a full-fledged member of the Oklahoma-based, Grammy-winning group the Flaming Lips.

Ingalls was inducted into the Lips in 2013 as a keyboardist and guitarist. By then, the Flaming Lips had already ridden a series of quirky hits like “She Don’t Use Jelly” and the synth-heavy, psych-pop of “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, pt. 1” to stardom. The band released their 14th studio album this January, and, of course, Ingalls was credited on it (as were guest vocalists Miley Cyrus and Reggie Watts of Comedy Bang! Bang! fame). Membership in such a band opens doors — doubtless, Ingalls never expected to one day collaborate with Miley Cyrus — but it also creates interesting wrinkles in other plans. Scheduling, particularly, has been difficult for the sun kids in Memphis.

Spaceface

Spaceface recorded Sun Kids over a period of almost two years in three different studios. “That’s how Spaceface tends to have to work anyway,” Ingalls says, “with my being out of town all the time.” The band worked when Ingalls wasn’t globetrotting with the Lips and when they could make time between work, life, and Spaceface concerts.

The band recorded at Ardent, in their rehearsal space under Minglewood Hall, and at the Grove in Cordova. The circumstances in which the Memphis rockers tracked their debut album stood in stark contrast to the bright sounds that define it. “A bulk of the record was recorded all between the hours of midnight and four or five in the morning, in the dead of winter,” Ingalls says. “Which is pretty funny because it’s a pretty feel-good, springtime record.”

Sun Kids is definitely a feel-good record, psychedelic in its spirit of sonic exploration, but firmly grounded by a tight rhythm section and occasional acoustic guitar hooks. “We all wanted to have a sort of earthy quality,” Ingalls says. “I know our name’s Spaceface, but we talked extensively about wanting to make something that sounded like it was from this plane of existence.” With shimmering, clean guitar lines and high-and-lonesome vocals dancing over the aforementioned rhythm-section groove, Sun Kids has more in common with MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular or Dr. Dog’s Be the Void than with any of the sprawling jam bands who currently wave the tie-dyed flag of psychedelia. Most of the songs on Sun Kids clock in at around four-and-a-half minutes and have been tooled to pop precision.

Sun Kids feels fated to become the soundtrack to many Frisbee-themed trips to Shelby Farms. It’s an album that implies a narrative, hints at a story, and the story is a little wild, a little weird, and quintessentially Memphis.

The band has previously released a handful of live and studio EPs, and their cover of King Crimson’s progressive-rock classic “Moonchild” is not to be missed. Sun Kids is Spaceface’s longest release to date — and their most lush and cohesive. Essential tracks include album-opener “Parachute,” “Cowboy Lightning,” the dark groove of “Spread Your Head,” and “Time Shares,” which features Julien Baker as a guest vocalist. “We knew she would kill it,” Quinlan says.

Spaceface is packing up their phaser pedals, confetti cannons, and their giant parachute for a West Coast tour beginning this May, with dates in Los Angeles, Denver, Vancouver, and points in between. Sun Kids is available at local record stores and on iTunes and Spotify.

Categories
Music Music Features

Vinyl Heaven: It’s Record Store Day

CREDIT: Jesse Davis

April 22nd may be the busiest Saturday this spring for Memphis music lovers and vinyl hounds. Shangri-La Records and Goner Records are both opening early to participate in the 10th anniversary celebration of Record Store Day [RSD]; Burke’s Book Store is hosting a reading and concert for Jim Dickinson’s I’m Just Dead, I’m Not Gone in the Cooper-Young gazebo; and Lucero’s annual Block Party closes out the festivities in the Minglewood parking lot.

I’ve done the math, and it seems like, with determination and careful planning, it’s possible to see Tall David, Some Sons of Mudboy (twice), and end the day on a blanket in front of Minglewood, counting a stack of rare 7-inchers to the sounds of Son Volt.

The official list of RSD exclusives is nine pages long and includes rarities from Link Wray, Emmylou Harris, Prince, Ramones, Spoon, and the Kinks, not to mention a previously unreleased Diamond Dogs-era David Bowie concert. As if that isn’t enough to get any music junkie out of bed early, Waxploitation Records is releasing a “literary mixtape” of stories written by Nick Cave, Jim James, and others. And I haven’t even mentioned the children’s record by Johnny Cash or the third and final installment in Big Star’s three-part release for Complete Third.

“We’re participating in a huge way,” says Shangri-La owner Jared McStay. “We ordered more stuff than we ever have.” McStay says he’s not allowed to let slip which of the RSD exclusives he ordered for the store, but he’s excited about what’s coming in. The store cleared out some space with their Fool Fest sale, and McStay says they have been stockpiling some special rarities as well as local records to put out on Saturday alongside the RSD exclusives. “We’re open early,” McStay says. “And we’ve got a band playing at 2 p.m.”

Last year, while waiting for a show to begin at the Mercy Lounge in Nashville, I watched as David Johnson, the leader of Tall David, led the crowd — or at least the Memphis contingent of it — in an enthusiastic sing-a-long rendition of Harry Nilsson’s “Without You.” (I don’t want to add fuel to the feud, but no one from Nashville joined in the sing-a-long.) This year, fresh from an opening slot at Dead Soldiers’ album-release show, Tall David will lead the festivities at Shangri-La with an afternoon performance in the store’s parking lot.

Jesse Davis

“Come expecting to see the world’s tallest rock-and-roll crooner. Come early,” Johnson says of the free show. However, most Memphis music junkies will split time between the Madison record shop and its Cooper-Young counterpart, the holy grail of garage rock, Goner Records.

“One year we had a memorable guitar shred-off with some people playing their best licks back and forth,” Goner guru Eric Friedl says, but this year, Goner is letting Burke’s Book Store take over the performance duties with a reading from Jim Dickinson’s memoir by Mary Lindsay Dickinson and a performance by Some Sons of Mudboy.

“That seemed like enough [live music],” Friedl says, but guest DJs will spin soul and punk records in the store throughout the day. And the store will have coffee and donuts for the early birds.

“We’ve got the usual batch of exclusive RSD releases that everybody’s scrambling to get,” Friedl says. The store is also releasing Golden Pelicans’ Disciples of Blood LP on red vinyl. “We do have a secret release from NOTS that’s only going to be available in the store and from the band,” Friedl continues. “We were trying to figure out the best way to leak the word, but the NOTS Live at Goner [LP is being released for RSD]. We wanted to find a good way to release it, and tying it into RSD from the record store where it was recorded seemed pretty good.”
That’s right; Goner’s dropping a new, used-to-be-secret NOTS record this Saturday. And it’s not the only new Memphis LP coming just in time for RSD. A smorgasbord of spring releases by groups with Memphis roots is bolstering the RSD exclusives.

Valerie June’s The Order of Time led the blitz of spring releases, but hot on her heels were Dead Soldiers with The Great Emptiness, Chris Milam with Kids These Days, and Cory Branan’s Adios. At the time of this writing, Milam and Branan’s LPs are barely a week old, but Memphis-based psychedelic rockers Spaceface are dropping their debut LP Sun Kids on colored vinyl the day before RSD.
Though the band strived to record something that felt organic and could be replicated live, there were a few guest appearances — the band invited Flyer favorite Julien Baker to give a guest vocal performance. “[It] has our friend Julien Baker on there. We knew she would kill it,” Daniel Quinlan says.

With live music and new and exclusive releases from every genre, Memphis is primed to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Record Store Day. Whether it’s the new NOTS or the new Spaceface, the pop perfection of Tall David, or the country-punk attack of Lucero, there’s something to satisfy every listener.
For a list of all Record Store Day releases, visit www.recordstoreday.com. Tall David at Shangri-La Records, Saturday, April 22nd at 2 p.m. Free.

Categories
Music Music Blog

Weekend Roundup Part Nine

Spaceface play the Hi-Tone on Saturday, March 16th.

Its a good weekend for live music in Memphis, and the shows will continue to pile up as bands making the trip to and from SXSW start to roll through town. Here are some of the best shows going on this weekend. 

FRIDAY, MARCH 13TH.

The Sword, Eagle Claw, The Devils Right Hand, 8:00 p.m. at the 1884 Lounge, $20.00.  

Weekend Roundup Part Nine

Berkano, Rock Europa, Other Stories, 9:00 p.m. at the Hi-Tone Small Room, $5.00.

White Horse, Jadea Kelly, 9:00 p.m. at the Hi-Tone, $8.00.

Clay Otis and Shadowbrother, 10:00 p.m. at Bar DKDC, $5.00.

SATURDAY, MARCH 14TH.

Evil Army, SVU, Classhole, Criminal Slang, 9:00 p.m. at the Buccaneer, $7.00.

Mystery Lights, Homeshake, Liquid Teens, Chickasaw Mound, 9:00 p.m. at Murphy’s.

Weekend Roundup Part Nine (3)

Moon Duo, Dream Team, Ana, 9:00 p.m. at the Hi-Tone, $10.00.

Weekend Roundup Part Nine (4)

Catl, Marcella and her Lovers, 11:00 p.m. at Bar DKDC, $5.00.

Spaceface, Good English, 9:00 p.m. at the Hi-Tone, $7.00.

Weekend Roundup Part Nine (4)

SUNDAY, MARCH 15TH.

Full of Hell, Klaxxon, Reserving Dirtnaps, 8:00 p.m. at the Hi-Tone, $5.00.

Swearing at Motorists, Tweens, Gopesbusters, 9:00 p.m. at the Hi-Tone Small Room, $8.00.

Weekend Roundup Part Nine (5)

Mad Doctors, Beech Creeps, 9:00 p.m. at Murphy’s, $5.00.

Weekend Roundup Part Nine (6)

Categories
Music Music Blog

Weekend Roundup Part Five

Mavis Staples

By now you should know the drill. Here are our picks of the best concerts this weekend.

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 13TH:

Mavis Staples, 8:00 p.m. at Germantown Performing Arts Center, $27.50 and up.

Weekend Roundup Part Five

Zoo Girls, David Kurtz, Tony Manard, 8:00 p.m. at Otherlands, $7.00.

Chickasaw Mound, Period Bombs, Snow White, 9:00 p.m. at the Lamplighter.

Graham Winchester and Richard James, 10:00 p.m. at Bar DKDC, $5.00.

Jarekus Singleton, 10:00 p.m. at Lafayette’s Music Room.

Weekend Roundup Part Five (2)

 
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 14TH:

Susan Marshall and Friends, 11:00 a.m. at Lafayette’s Music Room.

Den of Strings, Shannon McNally, 5:00 p.m. at Lafayette’s Music Room. 

Lonely Valentine, 7:00 p.m. at Otherlands, $7.00.

Spaceface, Dirty Streets, Young Buffalo, 9:00 p.m. at the Hi-Tone Cafe, $7.00.

Weekend Roundup Part Five (6)

Whitney Morgan and the 78’s, 9:00 p.m. at the Hi-Tone Cafe (Small Room), $15.00

Cedric Burnside Project, 9:00 p.m. at the Young Avenue Deli, $10.00.

Weekend Roundup Part Five (5)

Broken Hearted Boys, 10:00 p.m. at the Lamplighter.

Marcella and her Lovers, 10:00 p.m. at Bar DKDC.

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 15TH:

The Settlers, 5:00 p.m. at Lafayette’s Music Room.

Murder By Death, Rocky Votolato, 7:00 p.m. at the Hi-Tone Cafe, $13.00

Weekend Roundup Part Five (5)

Jeff Jensen, 7:30 p.m. at Lafayette’s Music Room. 

Weekend Roundup Part Five (6)

Hudson Falcons, Dressed for the Occasion, 9:00 p.m. at the P&H, $5.00.

Categories
Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Spaceface at Minglewood Friday Night

CREDIT: Erika Mugglin

Erika Mugglin

Spaceface

Jake Ingalls is a jet setter. When he isn’t touring the world with The Flaming Lips, he’s hitting the road in a short, yellow school-turned-tour bus with his own band Spaceface. Last week, the band embarked on a seven-day tour that ends this Friday with a hometown show at Minglewood Hall, where they will open for dream pop New York natives Phantogram. Spaceface formed in 2012 and has since been touring extensively to build a regional fan base. They even made their way to this year’s Hangout Fest in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and were put on stage by The Lips to play an unexpected set.

Spaceface at Minglewood Friday Night

[jump]

In the digital age, there is a new band on the radar every week, and it’s hard to find anything that stands out. But in a pool of up-and-coming bands that blend together, Spaceface has fused psychedelic rock ‘n roll with pop in a way that makes them – dare it be said – unique.

But it isn’t just bassist Matt Strong and drummer Victor Quin “Caveman” Hill’s groovy rhythm section, Eric Martin’s washed out guitars, Ingalls’ trippy vocals or Peter Armstrong’s spacey keyboards that will pull you in. When Spaceface loads in for a show, they don’t just bring their gear. The band carries an extravagant light show to every gig, and when they take the stage, the guitarists have lasers attached to the necks of their instruments. A sixth member, Daniel “Big Red” Quinlan, operates hundreds of multi-colored bulbs, lasers, LED rope lights and whatever else the band can get their hands on from side stage. A Spaceface show is as much a production as it is a performance. The band has stolen the light show typical of an arena rock act and made it their own in hopes that they can give showgoers the most for their money.

Phantogram and Spaceface have more common ground than just playing the same show in the same city on the same night. Recently, The Flaming Lips announced that they would be releasing a full-album cover of The Beatles’ iconic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band titled With a Little Help From My Fwends. The Lennon-McCartney classic “She’s Leaving Home” will be a collaboration featuring Spaceface, Phantogram, and Julianna Barwick.

The last time they were inside of Minglewood Hall, Spaceface played a show at The 1884 Lounge. On Friday, they will play the main stage for the first time. Every venue has different standards when it comes to Spaceface’s expansive light show, and it will be interesting to see if they will use all, or any, of it in the midst of Minglewood’s already stacked LED light system. 

Categories
Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Jake Ingalls: Letterman, Lennons, and the Lips

Memphian Jake Ingalls is a touring member of the Flaming Lips. Last night, the Houston High graduate and the Lips played “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” on the David Letterman Show. The band was accompanied by Sean Lennon. For Ingalls, 22, it didn’t seem like a big deal after a few years playing music at the highest level. His band Spaceface has a Valentine’s Night show/food drive with Athens’ New Madrid at the Sanctuary that reveals strong roots in Memphis. See our Q&A below.

Memphian Does LSD on Letterman with Lennon

[jump]

Flyer: You had a big day yesterday.

Jake Ingalls: Yes sir. It’s been a big couple of days. We did Amnesty International before [Letterman]. We’ve done our load out three times in the last 48 hours. We pretty much didn’t sleep for three days. Amnesty International was with Yoko Ono, we played a song with her and her son. We loaded out from that and went straight to the David Letterman load in, and then into the Vance Warehouse in Brooklyn for a modern super-jam advertisement with Ben Folds. It was pretty cool.

What about the show here?

Valentines Day. We are doing a canned goods drive for the MidSouth Food Bank. We’re playing with New Madrid. We had this idea we should celebrate the relationship between these two bands on Valentine’s Day in Memphis. It’s at Cooper Walker Place. There’s a big sanctuary above the Abbey. 

You’re on the road with a fun band. Talk about having to pack out.

Well Spaceface does a big production too. The Lips have been my favorite band since before puberty. It went ‘I want to be Bat Man’ to Willie Wonka straight into the Flaming Lips are the best band ever. It’s a dream come true. But growing up and watching them do crazy stuff all the time, it had a huge impression on me. I always knew when I started a band that I wanted to be more than a bunch of dudes standing there playing instruments. We have a pretty large rig. We have roller disco lights. Our guitarist’s dad had a friend who was a DJ in the ’70s and had this roller disco light that he gave us. Our friend Big Red sits behind the amps and keys it up when we are playing. I wouldn’t want to book a giant sanctuary unless we were going to do it up, and we’re going to do it up. 

What’s it like playing with Sean Lennon?

We’ve played and hung out with him before. On my first tour with the Lips, his band was opening for a solid month. He was just hanging around. At first it was like ‘Oh my god, what am I supposed to say to that guy.’ Now it’s like he’s just a nice dude. He’s a good-spirited person.

You played with Tame Impala!

We were just in New York a month ago with them. That was a dream lineup. Then we did a tour with White Denim, Tame Impala, and the Flaming Lips. I kept telling those guys I had a dream when I was 17 that this show happened. But Ghost of a Sabertooth Tiger opened up those shows with the Lips and Tame Impala. Everybody was digging it.

[Tame Impala] are this really well-oiled machine. They’re all really tight, and there’s this clear focus on how the sound of every instrument is onstage and through the PA. Which is a crazy thing for me to see. It gives them their sound. The juxtaposition to me was hilarious. With the Lips, you plug something in and instantly Wayne says ‘Crank that shit up.’ Everything is at 11 all the time. It works for us. But it was insane watching Tame Impala. I was jealous of them. Not only are the one of the best bands that I’ve been getting into in the past couple of years, they’re also the humblest and coolest dudes I’ve ever met. It was insane to me how rad they were.