Stephen Brodsky (Mutoid Man/ Cave In)
1. What are your top five albums that were released in 2013? (In order 1-5)
- Milk Music LP
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Push The Sky Away
- Zozobra - Savage Masters
- Doomriders - Grand Blood
- Chelsea Wolfe - Pain Is Beauty
2. What band did you discover in 2013 (can be a brand new band or an older band) that had an impact on your life? What made them significant?
I discovered that I love early Green Day. No shame. I had this ridiculously strong impulse to find a cassette copy of Dookie. No luck in New York on that front. Wasn't ‘til after I drove cross country with Ben Koller in October for tour/vacation, that I found a copy at Amoeba in (surprise!) the Bay Area. I hope Mutoid Man opens for them someday. Honorable mention goes to Iron Maiden for my rediscovery of "The Prisoner" and all its epic glory.
3. How will you remember 2013? (In terms of music)
2013 was wild for me. I got to tour with Old Man Gloom & Converge in NZ/AUS/Japan. Then [I] put out a solo record called Hit or Mystery that seemed to get a better reception than anything I've done on that front in years. Opened shows for Boris and got my mind blown. Let's see...my girlfriend and I saw Neil Young & Crazy Horse do a noise set at MSG and pissed off a lot of geezers in the crowd. Then Adam McGrath came into the city to catch The Congos & Lee Scratch Perry with me. It was my first legit reggae show, both of us in the presence of real legends, and I wasn't even high. In fact I've gone this whole year without smoking pot. All the while my buddy Jay Weinberg was taking me to see a lot of good shows in New York - a whirlwind of ETID, Flag, and Neurosis, to name a few. Feels good to say all that!
4. What can we look forward to from you in 2014?
Vacation Vinyl is making a limited cassette run of my set there from October, when I played totally acoustic - no mics, no PA, which is something I don't usually get to do. Then Hydra Head is gonna reissue another Cave In album on vinyl, and also give the same treatment to a solo record of mine that was recorded back in ‘99 but never released in full. Next spring, I'm supposed to fill in on bass again for Old Man Gloom's European tour... oh, and also Jay Weinberg and I are gonna release some music we worked on together. I think that about covers everything in the cards right now, seems like a good start to the year.
5. What records are you looking forward to most in 2014?
I'd love to see that Failure reunion, but actually taking a trip to LA in February is probably just a pipe dream, haha. I did read that they might be working on new music, so here's to hoping for a 2014 release? The new Helms Alee record comes out on Sargent House. I'm sure that's gonna be a banger. Also excited for Marissa Nadler's new record... saw Floor decimate St. Vitus Bar last summer and supposedly they're making a new record, too.
6. There is a lot of debate over streaming sites and royalties, namely with Spotify. What is your stance on the economic policies behind the current streaming services? Do you have a preferred one?
Well, distribution of recorded music is in the hands of techies. And they're cut from the same cloth as all the great minds that designed the earliest phonograph players, radio transmitters, receivers, and so on. Streaming services are just the next step in line of that chain. And I praise the work that's involved, because there's an art to it. I try not to think too much about money, because the only thing I can control is the ability to make the best work possible. That in itself usually leads to rewards.
