Quick hits: Laco$te

Place of origin: A joke but this hypothesis has been disputed. Archaic futures. Dreams and obsessions? Science fiction. Geographically, Eurotrash forever!

Upcoming shows:
Tonight, November 15, 2010 is the release show for our EP at Pehrspace! With I.E. (OMG everyone’s dream gurl droppin’ mad beats), Oscillator (To Live & Shave in L.A.’s Ben Wolcott and friends—sickness abounds), Captain Ahab (gods among men), plus a few surprises.

Laco$te on the move: X, William Caruso, Rob Thomas

So what personnel are in Laco$te?
We like the militaristic overtones of this word. From 2009 to 2010, Rob Thomas, Cole Miller and X work on The Paradox of Time EP, which was produced and recorded by Eddie Chacon, is being released by Manimal Vinyl. William Caruso plays synths now, Rob plays synths and falling apart electronics, and X sings and broods on love’s bitter mystery.

You have a lot of new things going on: new member, new EP. Have all the changes had an effect on Laco$te?
William joined the band. We have new obsessions (like Dr. Who and George Michael) and old obsessions (boys, math). The three of us, we met each other under the auspices of Sean Carnage at Il Corral and the benevolent Smell—William was a precocious teenager. Rob was man about town, X unfound. Adaptation. Members come and go… A giant robot that is more than the sum of its parts, maybe this time the left arm is an oscillator, the right an analog synth. Changes but just evolving till the ultimate form to destroy. Using decrepit gear in the unintended way. A mecha that can be specialized for its environment. Core and function remain the same

We recorded with Eddie Chacon (of Polyamorous Affair). The apparent contradiction that is so attractive to Laco$te. Eddie was of the airwaves over the US and Europe, met us unknown, noisy, with everything prone to breaking or being broken. An artifact of four individuals meeting. Boundaries like sea wave, negotations of countries, an arctic teardrop in the tundra, the signal of transference.

Can you explain the Laco$te Manifesto?
A text and an algorithm. The words degraded so beautifully. But like the radio we love speaking to you. Mediator. Who wants to hear, sounds like, influenza-ed by? That shit is boring. Join the recruitment program.

You were involved in the Manimal tribute to Bowie, doing a song from the movie Labyrinth. Interesting choice. What drew you to that particular song?
This song speaks to everyone, especially middle-aged goblin kings, who kidnap 12 year old girls’ brothers in order to get them to submit to them. Rob’s younger brother woke up with nightmares about Jareth, and screamed “They’re gonna steal the baby! They’re gonna steal the baby!” Rob likes the night on the dog. X no longer could resist the psychological complexity and dramatic potential of the lyrics. Cole was the new Bowie. The tempo is tricky, like the Escher-scene in the movie. The Duchesse from the Labyrinth forum liked the cover—true kvlt!

There are a lot of opposites in Laco$te: atonality/great melodies, seriousness/playfulness, cold tech-y beats/sensuality—are these mashes intentional or just a natural outgrowth of what you guys do?
1) The music is the surface of the accumulated histories of whoever is in the band at a certain point in time. So many have been in Laco$te or played a show once and changed Laco$te. Remember the classic Laco$te shows with Peter (Moran), or Kyle as hype man, or when Birth! grabbed the mic and Laco$te sounded like Skinny Puppy (lol), or with a drummer (Jamie Leggero), or turntables…[ad infinitum]?

Laco$te never renamed itself despite its transformations.

2) Not intention but attraction to tension. Also, work/party/life/death/love/hate/regret, all balances and shifting. Laco$te really likes sour mash and mashed potatoes. It’s all the same. Either good pop songs hidden in the murk or great sounds masked by pop, who knows, who cares. Rob loves white noise and J-Pop and conspiracy radio. Explain that—you can’t—it just is. What we are is who we are and what we do. Who wants the same thing all the time? I don’t care how good pizza is somedays you just want some nice greens.

Do you have anything special planned for the show?
Nascar shirts! Releases limited for that day, plus surprise guests. To reference the paradox inherent: old songs, new songs, a new video (see below), paying homage to K-pop and Hackers. We collaborate with some dude from Chicago (Matt Zatkoff) who directed and edited, and Margot Padilla & Angie Olsen (from ultimate cyberfangirl blog prettycoolland.com), our K-pop technical consultants.

X woke up one morning, called up Matt and asked, “Can you make me a K-pop princess, just for one day?” And he said “Yes.”