Office of Future Plans is out on Nov. 21 on Dischord. Listen to "Salamander":

Office of Future Plans – "Salamander" by Dischord Press

Following their 2009 three-song EP, Gerald (get it?), The Fordists have injected a little creepiness into their bass-heavy, angular sound that goes beyond the already creepy song titles ("Late for the Zombie Apocalypse"). The thundering echo that accompanies the group's harder-hitting moments suggests what might have happened if Jawbox recorded in a haunted house and kept the creaking floorboards in the final mix. Which isn't to say that the whole album is a creepshow, as the band skillfully juxtaposes moments of bombast with some downtempo instrumentals and guitar noodling.

The Fordists are set to head out on a national tour for most of July, just after their record comes out, and will join up with local new old emo act and buddy band Monument for part of the trek. They've also scheduled a local record-release show for the end of August at St. Stephen's Church in Columbia Heights.

Washington City Paper: How long has Bells≥ been active now?

Zach Barocas: We formed in November of 2008. We recorded in May 2009 with [J. Robbins]. Our first show was in September of 2010.

WCP: That seems like an awfully slow progression. How come?

ZB: I’m slow, so I don’t worry about it too much. My last band that had a record out, The Up On In, took even longer. Part of it is just that if you’re starting from scratch, it can take a while to work out. The kind of music we’re trying to play can get fairly complicated fairly quickly. Trying to make that palatable takes some time. Also, it’s an egalitarian band, so a lot gets thrown out. If any of us doesn’t like something, it gets thrown out. But, all four of us are always excited to be in this band, which is great.

WCP: Who is playing with you these days, and how’d you meet?

ZB: On guitar, it’s Chris Ernst and Steve Shodin. Steve was in some bands up here over the years, including Coup Fourre. Adam Riser was also in Coup Fourre. Both Chris and I had taken long stretches off from playing altogether, but Steve is always doing something. Adam also played bass in the Oxford Collapse. The band was basically formed out of some kind of locus of friendships; Adam and Steve are old friends, and Chris grew up with Drew O'Doherty [who briefly played in Ted Leo and the Pharmacists] who sang in my wedding. One night back in 2000, I told Steve we should start a band. So we did; it just took 10 years.

All of us were just more excited about playing music than the other stuff that people get excited about when starting a band. Basically, I had to get a practice space for the Jawbox reunion on Fallon, and I thought if I was getting a practice space, I might as well get a band together. Really, it was that simple.

WCP: How often do you play?

ZB: A couple times a week, give or take. We have four finished songs not on the record and a barrel full of half-baked parts. The fantasy is to get down and record with J. again in September.

WCP: Do you always want to record with J. Robbins, or are you ever curious how a record might turn out with someone else at the helm?

ZB: I mean, I have a friend up in Boston with a studio called Old Colony, which is mostly a mastering place now. Me and Chris recorded some of Drew’s songs there. A guy here in town, Matt LeMay, offered to record us for free. But really I’d rather record with J. under any circumstances. I haven’t made or finished or released a record without him. He recorded The Up On In and Bells≥. I don’t think I’ve made a record without him since 1990. He understands my playing better than anyone I know, and I think we’re all fans of J.’s. It’s nice to get out of New York and hide out in Baltimore.

WCP: This is your first D.C. show with Bells≥, right?

ZB: Yeah, first show in D.C. We played Baltimore with Office of Future Plans back in September. We used Gordon [Withers, from Office of Future Plans] on cello on the record, and he’s come up and played with us here a couple times. He’ll play with us on Friday. The last tune on the record has a second drum kit. Darren Zentek [Office of Future Plans, Channels] played that with us before, and he’ll play on Friday. There’s a certain kind of ambition that we don’t really have as a group. We’d much rather play with friends than get on a bill that’s somehow “good for us.”

WCP: Is the writing collaborative?

ZB: We tend to write out of jams, and that’s always been my preferred mode. Adam might just start playing a bassline and we’ll go from there. Some numbers will start with a guitar part someone brings in, but we all enter rehearsals with the understanding that if you think you have a finished song to bring to the band, we’re going to ruin it. By the time everyone gets their two cents in, it’s going to be a totally different thing. We’re never sure how something is going to end up, but once we get parts, we nail it down pretty tight. Though, it’s looser than other bands I’ve been in. Some parts don’t have a fixed duration—if it’s going well we keep going, if not, we get out. Coming out of Jawbox—that band was wired. Those were concrete arrangements. It’s nice to have a little room to breathe and not feel bound to what we did last time. Since no one has heard of us and only 20 people care about us, we’re free to do what we want. It’s nice to have enough talent and love in the group to be able to do that.

WCP: Does the band have a pool of shared influences?

ZB: One of the things that’s cool is that Jawbox is common ground. They were all Jawbox fans, so that saves me a lot of trouble because I never have to explain what I’m going for. Chris has a background in a lot of instrumental music, but this is the first band Adam and Steve have been in without a singer. When I started The Up On In, I didn’t want to mess around with singers, but I didn't necessarily know what I was doing. Chris actually studied with Tony Conrad, so he’s coming from a left-field position. But I’ve never known a guitar player that doesn’t eventually at practice start playing "Back In Black"; it’s the horrifying reality of the kind of music we play.

I’ve been on a classical kick lately. I’ve been reading this book by Alex Ross called The Rest Is Noise, and it’s been a total revelation for me. Outside of the punk rock canon—which is, you know, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Charles Ives, and [Arnold] Schoenberg—I didn’t know any of this shit. I’ve spent the past couple months just flipping out for Olivier Messiaen and John Adams, those two especially. It’s been terrifically exciting. That’s not music with beats, it’s not a thing I immediately understand, so some of that’s come into play.

WCP: When is the last time you played in D.C.?

ZB: Oh man. In January of 2000, The Up On End played with Burning Airlines, and I think later that year we player somewhere else in D.C. Metro Cafe, I think.

WCP: Is it nostalgic to come back to play D.C. after so long?

ZB: I’ve grown up to be a relatively non-nostalgic dude. I came down to see J. do Story/Stereo, and I came down to see Office of Future Plans open for the Dismemberment Plan reunion show. I’ve caught up with anyone I used to know who will still talk to me. [laughs] The last few years have been sort of a restoration for me. It’s always good to see friends at shows, and it’s cool to see new people too. I’m still of the mindset that if there’s 20 people at a show, that’s good. I think my father and his wife will be at the show; it’s the first time they will have seen me play in ten years.

Cooling Card: DCist contributor Brandon Gentry goes very, very long on Jawbox's For Your Own Special Sweetheart (as part of the site's occasionally occurring "Secret History" series, wherein the profiles of classic D.C. albums are aired). And very, very nice, too: "Far from a mainstream compromise, For Your Own Special Sweetheart is a step beyond in almost every way, upping the ante in terms of complexity, song craft and delivery. This is the LP that finds Robbins, Colletta, Barbot and Barocas gelling at every level, each player operating at the top of his and her game and pushing the others to greater heights. With Sweetheart, Jawbox recorded more than a great album, they created a milestone, a standard by which other D.C. bands would be measured."

French Film Blurred: We Love D.C. reviews Wire at the Black Cat and decides that the band's diverse sound throughout its 30-plus-year career doesn't do it too many favors in a live setting: "Never satisfied being pigeonholed by the critics as 'this type of band' or 'that type of band,' Wire shifted gears many times over the years. From punk to post-punk to pop to industrial and so on, Wire were and still are always in a state of flux. While this is the thing that makes Wire such a satisfying and exciting band to listen to at home, I’m afraid it held their live show back a little bit on Thursday."

Not Chris Rock: TBD reports that Raheem DeVaughn predicts that robots will replace boyfriends in the future with the release of "his eleventh mixtape project, Heemy Taught Me. The first single is 'B.O.B,' which is not a reference to the Atlanta rapper behind the hit song 'Nothin' On You,' but an acronym for 'Battery-Operated Boyfriend.' In the song, and the accompanying sci-fi, Tron-inspired video, DeVaughn imagines that, in the future, all human men have been banished from earth, and women are forced to couple up with robot stand-ins." Arts Desk is greatly enjoying the Kanye rip-off, but if you aren't, TBD also has some words on Synetic's production of King Lear.

Yesterday on Arts Desk: Hollywood decamps to Hollywood for ugly people, Rob Kapilow's direction of the Choral Arts Society, and the grand return of HR-57.

Friday night Robbins–accompanied by cellist Gordon Withers and the smallest drum machine I've ever seen–performed an all acoustic concert as part of the The Writer's Centers' Story/Stereo series. As it turns out, the songs come across just fine sans full-stack.

Robbins and Withers were kind enough to let Washington City Paper shoot some footage of their soundcheck, including a cover of John Cale's "Thoughtless Kind" that didn't make it into the final set.

Baltimore-based music blog Aural States has posted a recording of the full performance here.

"Thoughtless Kind" (John Cale)

More after the jump:

"Escape Engine" (Burning Airlines)

"Scissoring" (Burning Airlines)

Author Marianne Villanueva and poet Steve Fellner will also read from their works.

Story/Stereo: J. Robbins (solo), w/ Marianne Villanueva and Steve Fellner
The Writers Center
4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD
8 pm
Free

Just in case you missed it:

"Savory"

The band also performed the songs "FF=66" and "68" during rehearsal. Those videos after the jump:


"FF=66"

"68"

In case we haven't reminded you enough: Jawbox is performing tonight for the first time in over 12 years, with a one-off appearance on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" on NBC. The episode airs at 12:35 a.m., and the other guests are MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and designer/director Tom Ford.

According to frontman J. Robbins, the group will play "Savory," which it performed on the same show in 1994, with Conan O'Brien as host. "Savory" was the first single from For Your Own Special Sweetheart, Jawbox's major-label debut that Dischord rereleased last month.

Robbins told Arts Desk's Aaron Leitko in October that the band has no plans for a reunion tour or other activities after tonight, at least yet. "It’s much easier to imagine doing justice to one song for one day than it is to imagine pulling off a full set and tour, particularly with [drummer] Zach [Barocas] being in NY and with the family and work commitments that we have," Robbins wrote. "Maybe this will adequately scratch the reunion itch for those of us who are feeling it."

Either way, if tonight's performance leaves you wanting more, you can catch Robbins play in February at the Writer's Center in Bethesda as part of its Story/Stereo series. He'll be performing reconfigured Jawbox songs and other material alongside readers Marianne Villanueva and Steve Fellner.

Image courtesy of Jawbox's MySpace page.

Ask veterans of Dischord Records, and they'll tell you that 1985 was their Summer of Love. It was the "Revolution Summer," when strands of D.C.'s punk scene cohered into the forward-thinking, inward-looking sound—epitomized by Embrace, Rites of Spring, and others—by which the label made its bones. A pedant might say it was the moment when hardcore became post-hardcore.

One of the Dischord bands active that summer was Gray Matter, who reunited last year at the Black Cat's 15th anniversary show, and whose furious, tortured punk rock often made room for caterwauling guitar solos and lengthy, psychedelic freak-outs—like the one that concludes the quartet's 1985 Take it Back EP, ending abruptly with a crash of breaking glass.

Dischord has reissued that EP and the 1984 Food for Thought album on LP and in MP3, and at 8 p.m. tonight, you can buy both records at a free listening party in the Red Room bar at the Black Cat. Drummer Dante Ferrando—the club's owner—and singer and guitarist Geoff Turner will be there, spinning both records as well as some of their favorite tunes by D.C. bands. (If you played in one of those groups, Ferrando says he'll buy you a drink.) Collectors take note: The Take It Back reissue also includes every track from Gray Matter's 1991 4 Songs double seven-inch, which is out of print. However, the group's six-minute cover of "I Am the Walrus," which was included on the 1990 CD compilation of Food for Thought and Take it Back, sadly seems to be absent.

And don't forget! Dischord has rescued Jawbox's stunning For Your Own Special Sweetheart from the bowels of Atlantic Records, and that reissue is also in stores today. Jawbox performs on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Dec. 8.