Is This Hyperreal?, Atari Teenage Riot’s first album released through LA future stomp label Dim Mak, is an acetylene laced documentation of ATR’s re-ignition after an eleven year silence. We checked in with legendary frontwoman, Nic Endo. [photo by Laurie Sermos for Feature Shoot]

What were some of the inspirations for Is This Hyperreal?
‘Riot Grrl in 2012, female superheroes, Sonic Youth, B52’s, CBGBs, Poly Styrene’.

When do you get the best ideas for songs and lyrics?
‘I have these moments, when I witness something or something strikes me, I just immediately want to write about it. Sometimes I quickly take a note that I come back to months or even years later. On the song, Blood In My Eyes, it was instant. I was working on the artwork for the album and I felt that we never wrote about the issue of human trafficking before. Two days later the song was finished’.

How would you describe your style?
In terms of work ethic, fashion style and attitude towards creative work, I think may as well have been the inofficial love child of Rei Kawakubo and Maya Deren’.

What item of clothing would you never be caught dead wearing?
‘Birkenstock’s, and for that matter, any type of shoes that resemble them; anything floral printed; anything frilled or ruffled’.

How do you get ready for a show?
‘When I am on tour, I don’t get much sleep, so at some point everything just becomes sureal. I can disconnect myself from everything, even if I am surrounded by zillions of drugged up and drunken people. That helps me get the focus back. I just think of the music and the idea behind the songs, that gives me all energy, no matter how the rest of the day or night has been’.

What did you have for breakfast this morning?
‘Large coffee’.

What is your ideal day in Berlin?
‘Berlin is a very dark city. I love those moments, they make me want to write music. Sometimes it’s those little things: you walk down an empty street at night, it’s cold and everything looks and feels like a David Lynch movie. You get to the studio and wonder, what was that? And then you write …’

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Coming across like a mesh of Smashing Pumpkins and Sonic Youth, Athens, Georgia, indie-rock band Twin Tigers are a earful in their own right. Their new video for the single, Red Fox Run, was directed by Robert U. Thomason.

In attempts to dance about Shellshag’s sound, they’ve been described as being an amalgam of The Breeders, Sonic Youth, The Ramones, DFA, David Byrne, Guided By Voices, Moldy Peaches and early Superchunk — and, because they’re a male guitarist/female drummer duo, those touch points (Jack and Meg, Matt and Kim, Juicifer) get tossed around like so much confetti, too. This is their new single, Resiliant Bastard, and it’s damn fine. Now, where are those dancin’ shoes?

Mystery has shrouded Jandek since the ‘band’s’ music arrived on the scene in 1978 (although calling Jandek a ‘band’ is rather misleading). Since then, Jandek has produced over 60 self-released, often atonal avant-garde blues and folk, albums.
Widely revered by a fan-base consisting of stalwart rockers Sonic Youth, Jandek is believed to be a one-man operation. Part of the musical project’s allure is the often ambiguous mix of performance art with the music. A nameless ‘representative’ from Corwood Industries (Jandek’s label) played the ‘band’s’ first show in 2004. Since then, this ‘representative’ has appeared a few times a year to play with some of the best musicians in the world.

Jandek will be playing September 6th at Issue Project Room with consummate drummer, Ryan Sawyer, Susan Alcorn, Shazad Ismaily, C. Spencer Yeh, and the Nate Wooley Trio. If you’re anywhere near the Eastern Seaboard, this performance in New York is not to be missed.

As a So-Cal suburban teen, I was a die-hard Sonic Youth lover. So when Kim Gordon launched X-Girl clothing in 1994, I became an insta-fan. My favorite T-shirt was electric blue and said X-Girl in neon orange and pink and wearing it immediately helped me separate the kids I’d like to know from the ones I wouldn’t: every jock would say. ‘X-Girl, does that mean you’re a dude now?’, while every music nerd would give a knowing nod of alliance. I still mourn its American, demise so I’m thrilled that Kim Gordon is back in the fashion game with a new line called Mirror/Dash, coming out February 16 at Urban Outfitters. The collection has a feminine, tomboy feel, much like Gordon herself, and features a slouchy pocket t-shirt dress, a casually sexy wrap dress, and the necessary blazer staple, among other items. Whether she’s rocking out with Thurston Moore in Sonic Youth, making art, or jamming with her other band Free Kitten, Kim Gordon continues to epitomize cool. And I have no doubt each piece in her collection will, too

We’re stoked that you’re back in the designing business. Is it exciting to be creating clothes again?
‘It is exciting. There is so much more in downtown fashion since X-Girl that its a bit daunting but we’re not trying to remake the wheel or anything’.

Wearing my X-Girl T-shirt always made me feel like the coolest girl in school. Did you ever have a connection to fashion like that?
‘When I was in High School I basically couldn’t afford to buy new clothes so I shopped in thrift stores. When I was 12 though, I bought a pair of red corduroy hip-hugger bellbottoms from a hip English clothes store where we lived in Hong Kong. I saved up for them for a really long time and I felt very cool wearing them. That was my first store obsession. I used to go there all the time just to look’.

Did you expect X-Girl to have that sort of effect?
‘We didn’t know what to expect with X-Girl. We pretty much didn’t know what we were doing. We were lucky to connect with Mike Mills, his graphics really made the whole thing work I think’.

Your new line debuts exclusively at Urban Outfitters on Feb. 16. How did you hook up with them?
‘A couple summers ago Sonic Youth was asked to play in a store as part of a radio promo effort. They did a great job with the whole thing. When Mel Wansbrough, my partner, and I were looking for backing for Mirror/Dash we ran into a friend of hers who designs at Urban and she suggested we contact them’.

Who did you work with to create the line?
‘Mel and I work with Jeffrey Monteiro, who used to work with Jane Mayle and was head designer at Derek Lam, and Sari Gueron. The challenge for us is doing something that’s not strictly Urban in that we want it to appeal to someone a little older than a teenager or college student, but still have enough youth appeal to belong in the store’.

What was your inspiration for this line?
‘I constantly go back to Francoise Hardy as someone who always looks very cool no matter what her age is. She wasn’t overstylized in the ’60s or too girly. It’s that French thing I guess’.

Can you give me a brief description of the line?
‘It’s somewhat basics oriented, in that the pieces are meant to be more classic, in the way that A.P.C. has basics, but a bit more flattering and sexy, less androgynous’.

I read that your mother was a seamstress. Was that your first influence in terms of design?
‘Yes. My Mom used to make clothes and have an ‘open house’ to sell them. She used beautiful silk and velvet fabrics and made mostly caftans and these simple shapes called Abbas. Her sewing room was a jungle of fabrics. I hated sewing, but sort of learned how. I guess it all sort of comes back around’.

Since this line is aimed at a younger audience, did you bounce any ideas off of your daughter Coco? Is she into fashion?
‘She’s into fashion but on a very cool level, like wearing her old red Converse and my old T-shirts. She likes to shop at Urban but doesn’t want to look like everybody else. Which is kind of a cool thing about UO–it’s easy to blend their items into your own look’.

What else are you working on these days?
‘Sonic Youth is just finishing a new record which will be out in June, on Matador. I’m working on an art book for Rizzoli, and I have a booth at the Armory Art show in March’.

Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
‘I’m anxious to see the clothes’.

So are we!

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