ABOUT MISBEGOTTEN MAN
Kevin Shea: Misbegotten Man is a protest album. The record explores the tools and artisans behind the magic curtain; its a tactical address opposed to the popular juxtapositions of design and practice -- like rhetoric and intentionality, sophistry and monetary nihilism, etc. It wants a reevaluation of shallow patterns/formulas set in motion for special survival -- like the irony of the dinosaur, waylaid by an oil pit, with no physiological capacity outside of evolution as to where the motor propels the meaty bobber on the prehistoric pulpit. These are hot topics, but they are also very real and irresponsible -- its automated/conspicuous predestination on the bandstand like how crystals grow, but the perspective/product of our soothsayers has become a vestigial temporality. We're screwed not because we can't comprehend, but because we are human beings fundamentally attached to our identity matrixes -- whether they be cultural, nationalistic, religious, regional, economical, tribal, political, etc. The solution is resoluteness with ethical intuition, not simply customary intuition based on the probability of our la-di-da existential mortality -- compassion sounds cheesy because its meaning is repressed.
The title song imagines an anomalous/spectacular discovery within what is a misconception of authentic public space -- as the glaciers melt, a caveman/alien is revealed after being frozen for a million years. This anomaly is soon brandalised, yet in the end it/freedom remains innocent and misunderstood by a corrupt scientific method. vigilance fails as the anomaly is blotted out by a perpetuity of archetypes, of ghost image traces bleached into the eyes. The spectacle blinds the scientists and now that's all they see to the point of narcissism and indifference, and so this is what they teach. The song summarizes victims of ideology, how automatic epiphanies work -- its like in Alexis Meinong's analysis of language where words refer to actual experience, where the word unicorn would thus refer to an actual unicorn. This is the essence of the record -- each song investigates the various psychical binds that shape atrocities. The Myspace O Mypsace song is about regions around the world where crisis and conflict are brought about in the face of stolen natural resources. The song imagines the head of a multinational daydreaming about commodities while leisurely sitting on the edge of the African continent. The indifference to human rights leads to the privatization of natural resources -- diamond mining, water trade, etc -- and it also magically leads to a media saavy, guilt-free consumer culture.

ABOUT PEOPLE
Mary Halvorson: I never sang before joining this band. Normally I consider myself a
guitarist-- I studied jazz guitar and play in a lot of experimental jazz bands
(mostly instrumental music). The idea behind People was to see what sort of a
thing I would come up with if I were to do a more rock-based project. I wanted
the lyrics and the concept in general to be unique. Kevin and I were playing
some guitar/ drum music at the time and he was also studying and
writing a lot of short stories/words. I really liked what he wrote so I
decided it would be a fun challenge to put those words to music. For the first
year or so that we played (2002-2003), we were experimenting a lot-- practicing,
refining the concept, trying out new ideas etc. Later we began expanding the
songs, introducing vocal harmonies...

People Interview in Aural Minority.

Here is an interview we did for our Canadian Tour 2006:
HOW NOT TO INTERVIEW PEOPLE
By Bill Adams
View Magazine (Hamilton, Ontario)
Greater Hamilton's Weekly Alternative Online Edition
Vol. 12 No. 29. July 20th-26th, 2006
http://www.viewmag.com/viewstory.php?storyid=4296

There are few interview experiences more potentially harrowing
than the email interview. On paper, the format seems ideal, the
email interview gives the interviewee the chance to think about
his or her answers and provide the best possible sounding
responses to questions and hence the best, most informative
story. But what the medium doesnt provide is interplay between
the interviewer and the subject. Its much easier to
take the answers out of context and, if a subject wants to be
evasive, they can take all the time and space they
want to do so. In short, its a format that puts the subject
in a position of control over the writer and you never know
what youre going to get. Sometimes its only a couple
of words per question, others an indepth analysis of whatever
happens to be on the subjects mind (which invariably has more
to do with the question they wish was asked rather than the one
that was actually asked).
As a study in both sides of that possibility for disaster,
below is my horribly mismanaged email interview with Brooklyn
based art damage/free avant jazz/indie rock duo People. Formed
by Mary Halvorson and Kevin Shea four years ago, People has
given the collective heads of listeners a quarterturn, standing
highconcept on its ear and challenging the preconceived notions
of what music is expected to be. As it turns out, that spirit comes
naturally to the band, they simply cannot help themselves as they
recast what could be the painfully ordinary into something
extraordinary, even if its the most pedestrian of interview
questions.

View: How long has the band been together?
Mary Halvorson: I think about four years...
Kevin Shea: And yet, in sooth we arent a band in the common
undertaking, we dont go around raping and pillaging in order to espouse new doctrines. Rather, we are an experiment in the
laboratory gone wrong; we dont know where we came from, why
we are together, or how we met, only that we are the product of
chance relations canceling out all human feelings we may have
once had. We dont play because we want to, because we have to,
because we want money or fame, in order to trace our evolution
youll need to go back millions of years to the time before the
dinosaurs. Were functioning single celled amoebas without
reason. This is what we do, I dont know why. I dont have the
answers, if I had all the answers there wouldnt be corporate co
opting and diversion of rivers away from landlocked regions in
the Middle East, now would there?
View: How did you meet?
People: This is a mystery that must never, ever be revealed.
View: Are you on tour right now? If so, how long is the tour and
hows it going so far?
MH: Depends on how you define tour.
KS: Tour used to indicate that a band was out for 300 days of
the year, nowadays all you have to do is play one show in the
outer regions of Long Island and youll find yourself on tour.
View: How have the crowds been?
MH: People either hate us with a passion, love us, or stare at us
with blank expressions.
View: I just finished listening to the copy of the new album that
you sent over. How does People write songs?
KS: To me, these songs arent fully written. What makes the song
a song is the interpretation of the song. So many bands today get
together and play just like the record. Thats not what
songwriting is to me. Mature songwriting depends on the players
to interpret the song. If all you do is write songs, you are merely
an architect of your own demise, i.e. songs are sturdy hunks of
metal and wood, sewn together on top of the impervious surfaces
so that chemical/biological runoff destroys the natural filtering ecology of rivers, lakes and oceans. Unless you want to be
responsible for contributing to the destruction of our water
supply, I wouldnt advise writing unyielding songs.
View: How does the writing process break down? Music or words
first?
MH: Kevin gives me lyrics. I take the lyrics and write music to fit.
Then I write it all down, memorize it, and give Kevin the charts to
learn.
View: What are your influences?
MH: Tasty meals...
KS: ...We of People are influenced by tasty meals more so than by
bands or musicians. When we play music we are much more
interested in its tangible feeling than we are by how it effects
something effervescent like ones spirit or soul. When you eat a
clove of raw garlic, kerpow! Your body has been transgressed, the
sulfur content marks its antibiotic properties. Playing music is
about human feeling, motion and sexuality.
View: The songs tend to take strange turns within the structures
that you lay down or theyll occasionally follow a straight
progression without adhering to a typical structure (like verse/
chorus/verse or something). Is that a conscious move away from
convention? What were you reaching for when you were making
this album?
People: We arent reaching toward something, certainly a troop
like The Strokes reaches toward a cutesy bubble gum pop sound
that is as forgettable as most pizza restaurants; they are reaching
toward your foot, tying marionette strings on your toes and
making it go tap tap tap. But a band like the Stones is
completely rooted in what they do, its clear what they will be
doing until they die. They arent manufactured or hip. People is
just like the Rolling Stones in this way, we are playing the music
we both love to play, and though we wear deodorant, we dont
wear colognes and perfumes. We dont need to impress you, its
obvious. You are aware of what fresh air is, and how vital it is, you value fresh air, dont you?
View: I thought it was really cool that you simulated the sound of
a CD skipping on For Michael, but where did the idea come
from? How do you describe the sound of the music that you make
and the method in which you make it?
MH: This idea came directly from the lyrics, which at that point in
the song are And it skips, as it should. I always try to have the
music fit the lyrics, so that the lyrics are an integral part of the
song and are actually meaningful; not some afterthought to fill
space.
KS: Exactly, we arent flag waving bigots, nor are we traipsing
about panhandling/pandering party lines. This is the stuff we
grew up playing, our sound has a history, cultural diversity is
important. You may go to Lebanon and be surprised when you
hear the music, you may wish you could go home to your old
Rush recordings or phat Snoop beats. Thats not what we are
about. We are all equals. Our music should be on pop radio. I
think its safe to say that until it is, civilization will remain
doomed by impetuousness and greed.
View: Whats on tap for the rest of this year?
KS: Kenneth L. Lays funeral, more missile tests in North Korea,
perhaps another shuttle disaster.
MH: In addition we are recording our second record for I & Ear in
August.
View: What else shall we talk about? What else do you feel should
be present in the article or would you like to see in the piece?
People: We are very excited to play in Canada!! V

[ BILL ADAMS]
BONUS:

What can people expect to see when you take the stage?

PEOPLE: we follow in the footsteps of our rock band ancestors in that we have drums/guitar/singing...

but we dont feel the need to pay homage to the dying breed.
In other words, there is no dialectic between the
expectations of events and the actual events themselves.
To see and the will to see are matters of ones capacity
to interpret pragmatics and to control/understand
physiological/cultural operations i.e. if you are
expecting to see anything at all then probability has
you by the balls (and dont forget probability is
only another word for nationalism).


From Downtown Music Gallery Newsletter, July 2005:

PEOPLE [MARY HALVORSON/KEVIN SHEA] - debut self-titled (I + Ear 01) Let's call it math pop. Guitarist Mary Halvorson and drummer Kevin Shea are old hands at gee-whiz instrumentalism, but the purpose of this duo is to make catchy and exciting songs that flirt with pop convention. They have totally succeeded and their debut album is destined for heavy rotation among creative rock aficionados who will hem and haw about which slot it deserves in their year-end top 5. In the NYC post-jazz/improv underground Halvorson is known and cherished for playing in all kinds of experimental ensembles, often with fellow Wesleyan alumni who have also drunketh from Braxton's wine bottle of unrestricted and rigorous creativity. To the rest of the world, she's known as the bearer of burning, spiky Morris and Cline inspired jazz- rock fury on her hollow-body electric guitar that drives Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant to its ecstatic peaks of post-rock poetry. On this album there are no dazzling solos, no crushing power chords, and no post-Bailey scrabbles; instead, Halvorson revels in the sorts of muddy, dull, bassy, austere chordal stylings of countless 90s underground rock bands who staked out the parameters for textural guitar rock songcraft. While she caresses both melody and discord at slow to medium tempi, Shea (of Coptic Light, Storm and Stress, etc) goes nuts on the drum kit, piling meters on top of each other and rarely slowing down for a groove. It's an inversion of the standard foreground/background roles for guitar and drum kit that parallels Hella, but Shea's fabulous freakouts are more chaotic and less groovy than Zach Hill. On top of these slow/fast contrasts between guitar and drums is the even more exciting simultaneous juxtaposition of slow and clean vocals with Shea's speedy splatters. It's a truly original combination to my ears. Plenty of post-prog/math-rock thrills are to be had as they occasionally jump between angular themes and whip through accelerations and collapses, but with a lone instrumental in these 16 tracks, People is mostly about singing and words. Halvorson sings Shea's wacky/intellectual/esoteric/scary/ perplexing words with her music-geek intonational savvy in a light, airy voice with a husky undercurrent. Rejoice! One of my all-time favorite rock bands is TFUL282 and so I can't begin to express my joy at hearing People carry on that rarefied tradition, getting tied in Polvo-esque sturm-and-drang knots one moment only to hit a heavenly sunny pop plateau the next moment. Shea's idiosyncratic imagery finds equal and corresponding expression in the lyrics and the elaborate artwork, and he even sings on a few numbers, in a voice so compellingly mock-serious I can only cite the criminally obscure avant-pop wonders of Steaming Coils. There are precious few male/ female harmony parts, so I hope to hear more on their next album. Vocally, lyrically, and instrumentally this is a fresh, fun, and brilliant album, an oasis in the desert of avant-pop that balances creativity with catchiness. These songs are stuck in my head, which is exactly where they belong. The sooner you put them in yours the happier you'll be. (Released on both CD and vinyl.) -Michael Anton Parker


From Other Music, July 2005:

Drummer Kevin Shea (Storm & Stress, Coptic Light) flails in frenzied circles around Mary Halvorson's plodding and frequently dissonant guitar lines on this stripped-down avant rock debut. Shea and Halvorson are both talented improvisers and miraculously, the spastic outbursts of percussion always stay tightly glued to the comparatively slow and deliberate guitar parts. The album seems heavily influenced by bands like U.S. Maple, but People have tighter song structures and Mary Halvorson's vocals are far more tuneful. Sometimes she sounds a little like PJ Harvey. Those of you expecting something remotely similar to the I and Ear label's prior release by singer-songwriter Mike Wexler will be surprised to hear how different this is. It sounds more like something that Ipecac would release, which makes sense since Halvorson also plays with Mr. Bungle bassist Trevor Dunn in his Trio-Convulsant. [RH]


From The Late-Great Kermit McDunkle Stink, 2005:

People sounds like: rock music that doesn't take the listener for granted
-- some people might say "smart rock." this means rather than
going to a dingy basement party and drinking lots of budweiser, we'll take you
to a better european party in the alps with better drinks and a sense of the
human culture not tied in with histrionics. people is experience in and of
itself, not cliche adaptations and presumed stages of expected experience. we love
to hum a tune, and also multiple
interpretations -- people inspires community by
combining musical ilks -- the new family may seem strange but they are familiar
with practical applications and want to indulge you with fantasy meets
foundation. drums sway this way and that way because
rock is an ancient language -- rock is traditional. the
ensemble is part architecture, part party. playful interaction, serious questions, a capacity of compassion. not unlike the music of myanmar -- all at once you you hear the blatant relationships. lyrically people
doesn't self pity -- we are living
practically, but we don't want to lose ourselves in commercial songwriting
where there is nothing but an empty littany of overexposed cliches -- there is
no sense of self in the commercial radio. people makes you feel unique in that
we aren't singing cliches, in this way you can listen to people and have a new
experience, and experience wholly your own -- this has positive political
implications. we are here to make you happy, smarter, and
inspired to hold hands on planet earth. where other bands give you "band-like"
experience, People lets you take off your make-up and get loose.