COURTESY OF POLYVINYL RECORDS CO.
Mates of State couple Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel in a rare pensive mood.
‘Mates’ weigh in
at fest
To familiarize yourself with the music of married duo Mates of State, it's best to take a look at their music videos.
Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel are natural hams, willing performers for the mini-films done for three songs off of their latest indie release "Team Boo." They chew up the scenery in "Fluke" and "Gotta Get a Problem," the latter showing their lip-synching while sharing board, bathtub and bed in a supposedly haunted New Orleans mansion.
4th Annual POPcorn Music Festival
7 p.m. today at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Campus Center Ballroom, with Mates of State, The Thermals, Linustheband, The 86 List and teradactyl7 p.m. tomorrow at Club Pauahi, 68 S. Pauahi St., with Davey Von Bohlen, Mates of State, Port Guyana, DJ Monkey (from San Francisco) and Matt Ratt
Admission: $10 each night, all ages
Info: avant_pop@hotmail.com
The video for their mutant disco song "Ha Ha" pays homage to Bruce Conner's 1966 "Breakaway," which featured a young solo dancer who later became Toni Basil. The video was actually submitted to MTV for their consideration to air, but was ultimately rejected as "too arty" (although it's available on both the cable network's and Polyvinyl Record Co.'s Web sites). Too bad, because it's a hoot to watch -- it's in black-and-white, with a single camera zooming in-and-out on a sexily frugging Mates of State, complete with some artsy, distressed film look.
All of the videos help illustrate the playful chemistry the young couple shares in their music, which will be on full display this weekend at the two-day POPcorn Music Festival, featuring mainland guests Mates of State, as well as Portland, Ore., band The Thermals and Davey Von Bohlen of The Promise Ring, plus local indie faves teradactyl, The 86 List, Linustheband and Port Guyana.
Instead of their voices sweetly harmonizing with each other, Gardner and Hammel's vocals retain a stark and off-kilter quality, although they sometimes briefly lock together, only to fly apart and confront one another. He plays drums while she plays the unwieldy but very unique sounding Yamaha Electone organ.
The two met while attending the University of Kansas and later moved to San Francisco, played separately in a couple of bands and, at the end of 2002, left the Bay Area to relocate to Gardner's home state of Connecticut.
Their playing, singing and songwriting, according to Hammel, is part of a natural-feeling collaboration between the two -- which includes the glaringly bright sound of the Yamaha Electone.
"It's a monster," he stated, talking by cell phone while on the road, coordinating the shipping of the instrument that day to the islands. "It's about 186 pounds and almost like a church organ. She first got it from a guy in college who had it like forever. But he was leaving soon to go backpacking, so she got it for a hundred bucks. She didn't play it for a year afterwards -- this organ that she couldn't move out of her basement -- but she started playing it when we met.
"It's an amazing instrument -- it's all analog with hundreds of different effects. We fell in love with it and it's worth the effort to lug around in the back of a van when we tour. But, to be honest, when we go abroad, it's a real pain in the butt.
"It's only been serviced, like, three times, always for minor things over the seven years Kori has had it."
COURTESY OF THETHERMALS.COM
We're in this together: Jordan Hudson, left, Kathy Foster and Hutch Harris are The Thermals. The Portland, Ore., band are guests at this year's POPcorn Music Festival.
EVEN THOUGH there's one pretty song with Gardner on piano on the new album ("Parachutes (Funeral Song)"), Mates of State's music is exuberant and unabashed, filled with neat little lyrical phrases and an overall punkish quality -- except with no guitars.
"We prefer the aggressive tones of the organ," Hammel said. "After all, it's rock and roll, ultimately, and Kori fills out the sound by playing the bass keys. When we first started this band, some of the songs were played with guitar, but it became a pain to bring an extra amp and guitars with us to our gigs and, anyway, we wanted to do something entirely unique. The organ has two tiers of keys, and we set it on one of those heavy-duty synthesizer stands."
"It's made of wood, metal and tons of wire, stuck together with duct tape" Gardner said later from the couple's Connecticut home. "It's so much a part of our sound that I can't imagine what it could be like without it. Our fanbase likes the fact there's nobody out there that sounds like us."
With the occasional addition of viola, and horns on one of the album's highlights, "An Experiment," "Team Boo" represents yet another baby step in the evolution of the duo's recorded sound. "It's my favorite album," Gardner said, "the first time I can listen from the beginning to the end of an album and not cringe. I do think it's a progression for us, as we realize there are new areas we want to explore sonically and paying more attention to detail. The first two albums we did were rushed, as we were just interested in laying down songs. But now we spend a lot more time in the studio, although we're one of those bands with a very ... slow ... progression."
When asked about their declaratory vocal style, Gardner said "it took us a while to learn how to sing together. We both sang in other bands, and when we first sang in Mates of State, we did our own parts. But when we started singing together, it was usually with a crappy PA, so we probably sing louder than need be."
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