This time I kept it in Temescal, and cruised by 4707 Telegraph, Smokey’s Tangle next door, and the Royal Nonesuch. Next time I plan on extending my range by biking around; the galleries in the “Murmur” are spread throughout Oakland, in Temescal, West Oakland, and Uptown. The show at 4707 Telegraph was called Babylon.

I like this piece, by Shannon Shaw:

And this one, by Richie Bucher:

The show at the Royal Nonesuch Gallery was called Lending Library.

I really don’t want to be a hater, but didn’t I see something like this at 826 Valencia Pirate Store?

Visitors were invited to take one item from the drawers. This is what I picked.

Twins were a theme at the Lending Library.

I saw a 2-headed turtle in Venice Beach once.

I don’t know what is in these drawers.

–Justin Allen

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1. The Have Mercys | Great!

The Have Mercys are a 4-piece indie group from Oakland with a fanaticism of the sitcom Full House.  Their album “Great!” was recorded (supposedly) at the famous painted lady from the show, in the basement or as they call it, Jodie Sweetin’s Meth Lab.  The album was definitely unique, especially considering it was distributed on a green cassette.  The music itself is ok.  It sounds like they have a Sonic Youth type thing going on, but all the songs sounded like they were recorded in mono, on a boombox inside a metal trash can.  These guys might be really awesome, but until they get a better engineer no one will ever know.

-Frank Summa

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myspace.com/havemercys

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2. Ariel Pink | House Arrest
3. Evangelicals | The Evening Descends

A lot of bands have interesting back histories, but I know Wes had a pretty unique experience joining the group, anybody care to share that story?

Claire: We had just finished our third song at the Knockout when our drummer, Jesse, jumped out of the drum seat and ran out the front door. We kept playing for maybe a minute and when he didn’t come back Jeremy ran out to see where he went, he came back with no Jesse and no idea where he had gone.  So we asked the crowd if there were any drummers.  Lo and behold Wes climbs on stage, Zola gives him a basic drum beat for the next song.

Wes: I played a couple of songs that I’ve never heard before off-the-cuff. I almost felt as if I was back in high school band and doing some sort of sight reading contest.

Even before House Of Brakes came out you guys would still open shows with “Black Ants.” Was that one of those songs that you played and just ended up on the record?

Jeremy: We try to be pretty conscious of our set length and order.  We tried starting the set with a few different songs, build-ups, jams, and there was something really clean and energizing about that song.  Just four hi-hats and Bam!; the audience is with us.  It buys us a lot of credibility early on that we then punish the audience for giving us for the rest of the set.

Claire: It also ended up being one of my favorite songs that we play too.

I noticed a definite progression from your first album, It Only Hurts The First Time, to this one. Are slower songs like “Youth Without Youth” a direction you’re looking to head towards?

Jeremy: Yeah, I think we’d like to just expand into everything. Slower songs, faster songs. That’s a good one in particular because we kind of just blazed it onto the record. It was kinda kicking around for a while with some other songs and we decided to just do it. It turned out different than we expected, but surprising, and interesting.

I’m just curious, was the song ru486 at all a reference to the East Bay band RU36?

Jeremy: I’ve never heard them but I’ve seen the sticker though. Ru486 is kind of about the rise and fall of a fucked up drunken night, and the effect and feeling of it from two sides. Ru486 is inspired by a Cursive song call A Gentleman Caller. Also, our ru486 it is sort of a combination of two songs, and that seemed to work well. Plus, ru486 is the prescription for the morning after pill. It’s just referencing the things you do that you can’t take back, the things you do that you know are wrong but do anyway.

What’s the story behind the “Whatever You Like” Cover? When?  Why?

Claire: Jeremy had this idea and we all went along with it, well because it included Ranon.  Make Me has love for Ranon.

Jeremy: For WYL I just thought the song was so perfect in so many ways, just a perfect pop song, and it had very few instrumental elements. Ranon’s a great friend of mine and is a fucking superstar and just needs a spotlight on him, I’ll introduce you two sometime and you’ll get it. He’s Bay-famous. I just envisioned him doing it with us and it happened.

Interview by Sean Logic
Photography by Matt Polito

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Listen to “Black Ants”
Listen to “Sirens”
For tour info, downloads, and more, visit www.makememakeyou.com

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