The "Hassle With Real": A Conversation with Bobby Burg

We recently had a chance to speak with Bobby Burg, a veteran of indie legends Chin Up Chin Up, currently rocking out with the up-and-coming Chicago band Vacations. Their newest release on Record Label (best label name ever!), I Was Bikini / But Rain Afraid, has been grabbing lots of attention, and the band is sure to gain more momentum in the indie music press after their inclusion on the new Polyvinyl-released Joan of Arc presents: Don’t Mind Control, due in January. I have been spinning I Was Bikini… for about a week now, and the syncopated rhythms and off-kilter vocals get better with each listen, from the otherworldly chanting of “New Friends” to the disco-riffing of “Solar Tongue”. They have a lot of world-music inspiration throughout, and their songs generally don’t veer too far from being light, air-y, and perhaps a little tongue-in-cheek. The whole album sounds like getting away from standard blues-based rock, like an excursion from the seriousness of nü-folk. It sounds like…well, a vacation. Check the interview below. Make sure you give the band some love via the internets, too, here: www.myspace.com/vacationsmyspace, and/or here: http://www.recordlabelrecordlabel.com/.

Tyrannosaurus Records: Can you tell me some of the sources of inspiration for the lyrics all over I WAS BIKINI...? Some of them get kind of weird, not in an off-putting way, but in an intriguing way. I'm curious how they come about, in a general sense.

Bobby Burg: It was really fun the way we would work on lyrics. Jeremy would email me a version of him mumbling over the music and I would give him a possible translation of what he was saying. He would then revise it further a combination of his original lyrics and the interpreted ones. Sometimes I would remake a version of how I envisioned his phrasing and melodies and send it back to him. We worked very closely together on the lyrics and melodies.

TRx: How do you see a band's locality/geography affecting their sound, in this day and age, with such fragmentation of the scene as a whole? Is it your experience that bands feed off each other when they are close together, or is it more of an "arms-race" within a given locale for each band to claim an individual identity?

BB: I guess I would say it totally depends on the band or day even. Both of the examples you've given can be true. In the case of Vacations specifically, we wanted to write songs that made us feel warm and summery in order to combat the freezing fucking cold winters in Chicago that we were sliding through to get to and from practice.

TRx: In researching some other press on you guys, I found more than one comparison to Vampire Weekend and Abe Vigoda. From your perspective, are these comparisons accurate?

BB: Jeremy DJ's that Vampire Weekend record. I liked what I've heard and I like some of Billy Joel's songs too. I saw a video of the Vampire Weekend guy singing with Fucked Up, they did "Parents" by the Descendents and I thought that was significantly better than any song written by Billy Joel, Vampire Weekend or Vacations. Abe Vigoda is pretty killer, I saw them in Texas and loved it.

TRx: Can you tell me about the greatest rock show you have ever seen? Or at least one of the top contenders if you don't have a favorite...

BB: Dead Milkmen at Metro in October this year as part of Riot Fest. It was my first time seeing them and they are one of my favorite all time bands. They totally delivered. I was in the pit the whole show and knew almost every word.

TRx: What can you tell me about "Record Label"? How important are small/independent labels to the music landscape?

BB: 'Record Label' is my way of putting out records. I started it to release Love of Everything and Chin Up Chin Up's first releases. I'm not sure how important small labels are. I don't even understand what a small label could offer a band anymore. They could offer to take half of the bands money in exchange for paying for them to record an album. That seems fair I suppose considering they will most likely never sell enough copies to pay for the recording.

TRx: Since we're nearing the end of another 365-day cycle, can you give me any favorite albums or songs from the year that was?

BB: That is a good question.

TRx: Looking to the future, what is the plan of attack for Vacations in 2010? Recording? Touring? World domination?

BB: Hopefully we can record some more this winter. We are still trying to figure out how to do it. Vacations is still in a huge debt to 'Record Label' for paying for the first recording. We only did 10 shows out of town to promote the record. I'm learning from my mistakes, before 'Record Label' pays for any band to record again I would want the band to agree to do a minimum of 60 shows out of town over the course of the year following the release. I thought Vacations would naturally do this so I didn't even ask the other guys about it. So that was my mistake.

TRx: What's your favorite dinosaur? (No, it does not have to be a tyrannosaurus...) ; )

BB: Stegosaurus the plant eater.

We forgive you, Bobby.

"ROOOOAAAAARRRRR!!!"

--TRx