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Interview With Ceremony’s Frontman Ross Farrar

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Ceremony is a rare breed for music these days. They are going to be a huge part of the hardcore/punk scene and are a band you shouldn’t ignore. To me they sound dangerous and I love it. I recently had the honor catching up with frontman Ross Farrar about the direction of their new album “Rohnert Park” as well as the Giants and some of his favorite horror movies. Oh and guitarist “Toast” chimes in on some of his favorites too. Enjoy.

SuperRadMike: So “Rohnert Park” is pretty close to being released, how pumped are you guys to finally get it out?

Ross Farrar: We’re excited to see what people think of it. It’s totally different from our other releases and to be honest I don’t think people in the hardcore/punk community are going to accept it, like it, whatever. We came at this record in a different way, absolute confusion.

SuperRadMike: What was the recording like for this album, did you guys do things differently this time or did you stick with what you know?

Ross Farrar: Many changes. We did gang vocals for the first time, a new wave song/70’s era punk song, homemade samples from a tape recorder, bottle tapping, etc. weird science.

SuperRadMike: What can we expect from this album, is it going to be in the same fashion as “Still Nothing Moves You” or can we expect something totally different?

Ross Farrar: It is the exact opposite of “Still Nothing Moves You” or “Snemy” as I call it. The songs are more verse/chorus and not as aggressive as “Still Nothing Moves You”. We didn’t do anything fast and when I say fast I mean thrashy or blasty or going further with the hands.

SuperRadMike: What were some influences of the influences you had for this record, I can assume this is album hits close to home considering the title of your album is where you guys are from.

Ross Farrar: The things we get inspiration from are all different. All of us are so different and we’re all living lives farther and farther from each other. Anthony lives with his girlfriend in Oakland (in the same apartment building as Toast) and JD I see once every six months (he’s clapped up in his apartment doing technical math) and Jake is around (we watched some basketball yesterday) and the fucking Giants lost to the Dodgers yesterday, which pissed me off because this season is important to me. I really am into the Giants this year and I need them to win. If they don’t I get a little depressed and it effects the rest of my day. Musically, we aren’t as inspired as you’d think. Much of what we listen to is old and as far as new stuff I can’t say for the rest of the band, I never talk to them about music. New bands that I like are pop/indie kinds. I’ve been listening to Sunny Day Real Estate and The Morning Benders lately.
 
SuperRadMike Since your last release and even a little before that you guys have toured with some legends such as Converge and AFI, what can we look forward to this year as far as touring goes?

Ross Farrar: We’re going to Japan in the middle of May with Bane and Cruel Hand. We’re doing a weekend in LA after that with local bands and playing a show with 7 Seconds, Circle Jerks and Municipal Waste. After that we’re doing a US tour with who knows and hopefully going to Australia or Europe in the fall.

SuperRadMike: I was curious if you would be kind enough to maybe share some of your favorite horror flicks or maybe some ones you might be looking forward to this year.

Ross Farar: My favorite of all time – I don’t know if this can be classified as horror, but The Shinning is my favorite type of horror, suspense, etc. Besides that Texas Chainsaw, Friday the 13th, Fright Night, Funny Games and Night Of The Living Dead.

Toast: Trying to avoid the obvious ones here…

-Zombie (for the Zombie vs. Shark scene)
-Final Destination, all of them
-May
-Dead Alive
-Re-Animator

Looking forward to:

-Piranhas 3D
-Hatchet 2
-Anything that isn’t The Black Waters Of Echos Pond

Ceremony will release “Rohnert Park” on June 8, 2010 and pre-order info will be coming soon. But until then you can pre-order their EP “Rohner Park EP: Sick” which comes out May 4th. Pre-order HERE

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‘Lost Themes IV: Noir’ – John Carpenter Announces New Album & Releases New Music Video!

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Lost Themes IV
(l-r) Cody Carpenter, John Carpenter, Daniel Davies - Photo Credit: Sophie Gransard

John Carpenter has been teasing big news for a couple weeks now and all has been revealed this morning. Carpenter is back with Lost Themes IV: Noir from Sacred Bones Records!

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

John Carpenter called the first Lost Themes album “a soundtrack for the movies in your mind.”

From John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, Lost Themes IV: Noir is set for release on May 3 via Sacred Bones Records. The album pays tribute to Noir cinema!

In conjunction with the announcement, they’ve shared a music video for the album’s first single, “My Name Is Death”, a miniature noir film directed by Ambar Navarro, starring Natalie Mering (Weyes Blood), Staz Lindes (The Paranoyds) and Misha Lindes (SadGirl). “Noir is a uniquely American genre born in post-war cinema,” states Carpenter. “ We grew up loving Noir and were influenced by it for this new album. The video celebrates this style and our new song, My Name is Death.”

Sacred Bones previews, “The scene-setting new single marks new territory for Carpenter and his cohorts, propelled by a driving post-punk bassline that is embellished by washes of atmospheric synth, pulsing drum machine, and, at the song’s climax, a smoldering guitar solo.”

“Sandy [King, John’s wife and producer] had given John a book for Christmas, of pictures from noir films, all stills from that era,” Davies says of the lightbulb moment for Lost Themes IV. “I was looking through it, and I thought, ‘I like that imagery, and what those titles make me think of. What if we loosely based it around that? What if the titles were of some of John’s favorite noir films?’ Some of the music is heavy guitar riffs, which is not in old noir films. But somehow, it’s connected in an emotional way.”

Sacred Bones notes, “Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes the songs on Lost Themes IV ‘noirish’ is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone. The noir quality, then, is something you understand instinctively when you hear it.”

“It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that became the initial Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts,” the label explains. “Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. In the years since, Carpenter, Carpenter, and Davies have released close to a dozen musical projects, including a growing library of studio albums and the scores for David Gordon Green’s trilogy of Halloween reboots. It helped that they grew up in a musical environment. Daniel’s dad is The Kinks’ Dave Davies, and he would pop by the L.A. studio – the same one the Lost Themes records are made in today – to jam, or to perform at wrap parties for John’s films. That innate free-flowing chemistry helps Lost Themes IV: Noir run like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

Here’s the full Lost Themes IV: Noir track list:

1. My Name is Death
2. Machine Fear
3. Last Rites
4. The Burning Door
5. He Walks By Night
6. Beyond The Gallows
7. Kiss The Blood Off My Fingers
8. Guillotine
9. The Demon’s Shadow
10. Shadows Have A Thousand Eyes

The following physical variants will be available:

  • Sacred Bones Exclusive Red on Clear Splatter vinyl w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Silver Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Sacred Bones Society Exclusive on Black and White Splatter on Clear w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Silver Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • All retail Transparent Red, with a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Indie Exclusive Tan and Black Marble, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Rough Trade Exclusive Oxblood Red and Black Splatter, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Shout Exclusive Black and Clear cloudy, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Black LP, with a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • CD
  • Tape

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now!

Lost Themes IV Noir

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