Menage

Losing two singers in four years might leave some bands in disarray. For Sarah McDonald and Mary Ellen Bush of the spirited Asheville folk-pop band Ménage, the changes led them to discover their true form.

When auditions for a third member proved unfruitful, and with a February performance in Raleigh drawing near, McDonald (guitar) and Bush (upright bass) ditched the trio format. They enlisted drummer Evan Martin and guitarist Matt Kinne, Bush’s boyfriend and McDonald’s guitar teacher, to perform. The steady backbeat and the electric strumming matched so well with their lollipop-sweet harmonies, McDonald and Bush realized everything was in the right place.

“We said, ‘This is what we should be doing,’ ” Bush said backstage after a performance at April’s Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance near Silk Hope, N.C. “It was one of those things where you are not searching for the solution, but one kinda pops out at you. So yeah, it feels right.”

Things have been moving nicely for the band since Kinne and Martin joined. Ménage has picked up the touring pace, playing shows across New York, Virginia and North Carolina, including its well-attended two-day stint as a featured act at Shakori Hills. The band will also undertake a short jaunt up the East Coast this summer, performing the 7 p.m. Friday slot at the 2006 Shiner Bock Twin City RibFest in downtown Winston-Salem.

The band’s story began in 2002 around an open microphone at the Westville Pub in downtown Asheville. Pub employees Bush and McDonald would trade harmonies during open mic night with Rhett Thurman on bluegrass staples such as “Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby,” from the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?

When the customers they served clamored for more, the women responded by writing new songs and recording them under the name Menage a Trois. The band later chose the less sultry Ménage after rejecting such monikers as The Honeys and Saw-Such Sisters.

The band quickly entered the studio, and two self-released albums and an EP followed. The Honey’s on the Porch and Miss Conduct featured Thurman, who soon left to play music elsewhere, including with an Asheville-based Led Zeppelin cover band. Ménage retooled some of its older songs with Thurman’s replacement, Allison King, and released the collection, 7 Songs.

Earlier this year, King quit to pursue a massage therapy degree in Minnesota. The albums showcase the former trio at its best when writing songs that capture slices of life. On the soft-acoustic ballad “Tell Me,” Bush sings of cutting the crust off a tuna sandwich for a loved one. A harmonica and acoustic guitar provide the dispirited backdrop on “Sunday,” in which the band laments how “everybody has a car on the driveway, early in the morning–--not me.”

McDonald captured the frustration of living in New York City with the bittersweet “New York Situation.” “Take me away from the streets, the lights, the cars. Dreams don’t come true in cold crushing bars.” “We don’t make stuff up,” Bush said. “These are songs about what people do and do to each other.”

The new songs, which continue to explore that same theme but are sonically more expansive, should appear on the band’s third full-length LP out in late summer. Some of the new material is simply pure rock such as “Shrinking Gun,” which resembles an early B-52’s composition and, along with “Oh Boy,” features a first for the band: the guitar solo. “When you have somebody who plays the guitar really well like Matt does and knows how to use an amplifier and turn it into overdrive, there are so many options,” Bush said.
Bush and McDonald do retain their sardonic sense of humor developed on stage as revealed on “Sorry Flowers”--an ode to a boyfriend who expresses regret with bouquets. “You only bring me sorry flowers to apologize. You only bring me sorry flowers and I can’t wait for them to die.”

McDonald said: “Someone from the crowd yelled to Matt, ‘Hey, Man. Stop sending those flowers,’ and Matt said, ‘I didn’t.’” Those songs are show regulars and will be recorded with Bill Reynolds again overseeing the album production.

In working with Reynolds, the bassist for rock/country/zydeco band Donna the Buffalo, McDonald envisions a weeklong recording process encompassing pedal-steel and long-steel guitars, jam sessions and more.

“We still experiment in all different kinds of music which we have done,” she said. “We still have swing, blues, jazz and all of that stuff.” McDonald pauses. “We just have a bigger car to drive it all around in.”

On the Web: www.themenage.com and www.myspace.com/menage.

Sean O'Neal of Unfoundsound Records

A two-week European tour looms. Eleven remixes are finished and four linger. And two-months worth of bills remain unpaid.

For Sean O'Neal, a Philadelphia-based DJ co-managing two record labels, a punk rock/DIY mentality lasts for so long.

"I'm burnt out right now. Naturally, I become extremely overwhelmed from time to time," said O'Neal, who spins under the moniker, Someone Else. "The biggest stress for me is when I have a long tour approaching, and there is much for me to finish before I go. I get very overwhelmed."

O'Neal can celebrate; however, as Unfoundsound Records finalized a compilation album marking its one-year anniversary (out Nov. 15). The label distributes high-quality audio files digitally for free under a music sharing license. To this point, users have downloaded nearly 100,000 DJ-friendly tracks during the year.

O'Neal also co-operates Foundsound Records which focuses on what the company calls "quirky, dance floor-friendly minimal techno" on vinyl. In another bit of good news, the label's reach will now include Europe with a second office opening in France.

From producing to writing to overseeing the record companies with his partners (he also co-founded the Tuning Spork and Fuzzy Box labels), O'Neal is deeply entrenched in Philadelphia's deep house and minimal techno scene.

Before O'Neal began his tour in Germany in late October, he answered some questions via e-mail. He discussed spinning in Russia, how the World Wide Web improved business and the one activity he spends more time on than pooping.

IW: With the label's birthday coming around soon, why celebrate with a compilation album?

SO: We thought it would be fun to compile as many minimal artists that we like and that are willing to give us an exclusive track for free. And we got a great response. Most of the artists we asked gave us a track. So that makes the compilation a whopping 26-tracker. Pretty ridiculous. Maybe it's the longest release in history -- or at least the longest free net-label release. Who knows? But it's sort of like a gift to the Unfoundsound listeners and DJs -- as well as a gift to ourselves.

IW: It seems you are spreading that gift worldwide through touring. On your fall jaunt, you will be performing in Germany, Turkey, Holland and Israel, to name a few countries. How did you manage to spin in Russia?

SO: I was basically contacted out of the blue by Anton Yantsen. He runs an electronic label called Kama Records in a small town called Izhevsk -- home of Kalashnikov who invented the AK-47 machine gun and still lives there now (but pretty poor because the Soviet Union had no patent laws at the time he invented it) … Through emails, he told me about a new club they were starting in Izhevsk -- where they will have house music DJs spin and have some random electronic music festivals.

And since he was also a fan of Flowchart and the Fuzzy Box label, we started talking about me going there to play the festival as Flowchart and also DJ at the club's opening New Year's Eve 2002. And Anton also arranged a small tour where I DJ'd in a bunch of other cities in Russia.

Apparently, I was the first American DJ to spin in many of the cities I visited there. I toured with the Swedish band, Pluxus. Then I went back two more times with similar experiences -- touring around Russia, then playing the club in Izhevsk. I will be there again very soon.

But this time, it's through a different promoter. And this time, I am not touring around the country. I am only stopping in Moscow for one night during my tour in Europe.

IW: What is the deep house/techno scene like the country? It seems the kids over there would be receptive to any chance to express themselves through DJ beats.

SO: In Russia? Well, if you mean Russia, you need to keep in mind that the club scene is fairly new there. They didn't have a disco era, or a roller skating rink era, or whatever.

Most of the small cities were closed cities for most of their existence -- meaning no people could go in or out. And some of these closed cities have only been open cities for less than 10 years now.

So the nightlife scene is fresh -- and in some ways, the only thing for young people to do at night. Russia is huge, and there are more people than you realize living there. And I hear there are small pockets in the country where there is a scene for specific sounds -- like Psy-Trance, Minimal Techno, Deep House, Drum 'n' Bass--whatever.

But what I saw was that everyone liked it all and just wanted to dance and party, and they would hardly care what style the DJs plays. Naturally, Progressive House and Trance get a lot of love when it's spun in clubs there. But Latin House and Electro also make crowds excited.

Yes, the Russian crowds seem to be generally more receptive than in other countries -- sort of like it was here in the USA about 10 years ago. It all makes sense, really.

IW: Do you prefer to select tracks or make them? How does the business side of the music cross over into the artistic side?

SO: I prefer to make tracks. Making tracks is how I prefer to spend most of my time -- aside from pooping. The business side has an impact on the artistic side when I am getting paid for the music I am making. When a label pays me an advance for an EP or a remix, then I feel obligated to make the track.

And then sitting down to make the music might feel more like work -- like some sort of day job. But so far, it hasn't really affected my music-making. If anything, it helps it by kicking me in the ass and forcing me to produce twice as much.

And anyway, I tend to work better under pressure and with limitations. I don't know why. That's just how it has been for me most of my life.

IW: It has been said pressing vinyl in Canada is a nightmare. Is that the case in the United States? What about Europe?

SO: I know nothing about pressing in Canada. Pressing vinyl in the U.S. is pretty simple. Companies like United, Hub-Servall and 33 are easy to work with. Same goes with Europe. Naturally, a label should press in the country they are based in. Otherwise, the label is going to get screwed by all the shipping charges to ship hundreds or thousands of records overseas.

However, mastering is a different story. Even when we were pressing records for Foundsound in the United States, we still had them mastered in Germany at Dubplates and Mastering (D and M). We still continue to master with D and M now, but now we press in Germany because Foundsound recently signed a (production and development) deal with Kompakt. Mastering is extremely important. That is what gives your vinyl its good or bad sound quality.

For some reason, mastering in the U.S. has never been quite as good as mastering in Europe. I don't think it's the people -- but rather the mastering gear that's affordably available.

(For many years, major labels in America sort of hogged all the quality stuff.) You can usually tell when a record is pressed and mastered in the U.S. because it's quieter than the average record. However, times are changing, and a lot of U.S. vinyl is starting to seem more and more identical to European vinyl.

IW: How did the production and development deal with Kompakt (a German label) come about?

SO: We simply hooked up with Kompakt through email discussions with Michael Mayer and some others that work for Kompakt. They simply made an offer, we pondered it for a few weeks since we also had offers from two other companies, then we took them up on it.

The contract is pretty laid-back. We didn't have to sign our lives away or anything like that. And so far, our experiences with them have been great. They're very professional. Sure, they're sort of like a growing empire at the moment. That scares me a little. But at the same time, they're really easy to work with.

IW: Would your labels experience success without the World Wide Web? Could you have made the contacts and created a buzz for your artists without it?

SO: Without the World Wide Web, I would be nearly helpless. Of course, e-mailing allows me to communicate with people from all over the world at a rapid pace. It's endless what you can achieve for yourself through the Web.

Before the Internet blew up, I used to communicate with labels and artists in other countries by snail mail. It worked roughly the same way as it does for me now with e-mails -- only I was communicating with much less people, and I had to wait much longer for a reply.

IW: Will you offer your artists a chance to have their music sold on iTunes, Napster or the other music sites?

SO: Our vinyl releases (Foundsound) are and will be available through various sites including Kompakt-mp3.net, Beatport and others. iTunes is still in the works -- as are many other sites.

As for our MP3 releases on Unfoundsound, these tracks are already free, so there is no reason to charge money for them.

However, many of the Unfoundsound artists are now releasing vinyl with other labels due to the hype around their Unfoundsound release. In fact, the Diss0nance release is licensed for vinyl on the Phonocult label. And a new New York label is taking four Unfoundsound tracks and releasing an Unfoundsound sampler on vinyl -- using tracks from Barem, The Suffragettes, Butane and my remix of Ezekiel Honig. And no, these tracks being free to download still will hardly affect the vinyl sales.

There is still plenty of distance between the world of releasing vinyl and the world of releasing digitally.