White Hills Album Review and Exclusive Interview

Just when you thought you were getting jaded by the billionth wave of psych rock, White Hills will enlighten the disenchanted. Their new self-titled record is a tight outfit of hallucinatory space-rock numbers strung together by Dave W.'s driving force of guitars and Ego Sensations thundering bass. Oneida's drummer Kid Millions steps in to provide pounding rhythms ascending into a climax that cannot be achieved by most other drummers. Interluded by some quieter atmospheric pieces reminiscent of their earlier work, "A Little Bliss Forever", "White Hills" comes together as a brain-conquering euphoria that only White Hills can supply. The new record is out now on Thrill Jockey, Get the vinyl at fine stores like Earwax before it goes out of print!

Key tracks: "Dead", "Polvere Di Stelle", "Three Quarters"

Download & preview songs on their official MySpace page

"Leave this world behind..."

Review and interview by Diana Kinscherf

POMP: I noticed White Hills has a different sound from record to record. "No Game No Play" was a bit proggy-sounding, whereas "Heads On Fire" is more of a rock record. The new one, ("White Hills") is in a different direction; what sound are you going for with the new one?

EGO SENSATION: Well, we strive to have every album be different from each other.

DAVE W.:My goal with White Hills has always been to create head music. What can be done within that genre is endless. I see the new one as being a bridge between "A Little Bliss Forever" and the stuff we did before that. "A Little Bliss Forever" took huge leaps and bounds to a space we hadn’t been to before in every sense…how it was recorded, to how the material was written to the overall sound. Out of that experience led us to our latest album.

Mario Paint Compositions for Time Wasting and Delight

If I had to pick one video game console to bring with me to a deserted island (thank god this desert island is equipped with electricity and a small tv!) it would undoubtedly be Super Nintendo. It's really no contest with games that stand the test of time like Donkey Kong, Yoshi's Island, Tetris Attack, Street Fighter II, Mario Kart, NBA Jams...and my personal super favorite, Mario Paint. My parents wouldn't even shell out for a Super Nintendo, let alone Mario Paint, which came with a mouse-controller and cost $70 in 1992. I was only aware of it because I had one of those childhood best friends who got everything - soda at dinner, theme park vacations, and every video game that came out including Mario Paint. No fair.

As soon as I blossomed into an eBay using adult, however, I became the proud owner of my very own SNES mouse and Mario Paint. If you haven't had the extreme pleasure of playing this game, it's basically a fancy Kid Pix (remember?) but you can also make 9 frame animations, there's a hypnotizing fly swatter game, and most wonderfully, you can compose music - with Mario heads, and other assorted heads/objects as your instruments (including a really creepy baby head that utters a sound which makes me very uncomfortable).

I always had this secret plan to get really good at using the Mario Paint composer (you know, when I have some free time) and then release the totally amazing songs I'd composed, vaulting myself into international fame. The only reason I haven't done it yet is because Mario Paint's composer it super time consuming and awkward and hard to use and nothing ever sounds good on it.

Ah, but we live in the age of the internet, so as you may have guessed, I've been beaten to the punch. Many, many times over. And though there are thousands of original Mario Paint compositions out there, the best songs are the ones that have already been written. I give you What Is Love, Mario Paint style:



My other favorites (after watching these for hours) are:
Paranoid Android
Inspector Gadget Theme Song
Thriller
Miserlou
Take On Me
And some Meme on meme action (this one goes out to Lou Dobbs of course)

-M