The Thousands

Thurston Moore said Aa‘s first album was the ‘kindsa sounds that young people should be making and enjoying in bistros from here to Kalamazoo.’ That’s a pretty glowing endorsement from the coolest dude on earth. Add to that they were personally invited by Japanese noise gods the Boredoms to drum as part of the legendary 77 Boadrum, and this Brooklyn punk drum circle threesome have one hell of a sparkling reference sheet. But hey, we can all read Wikipedia. We’ve gone one better on the rest of the internets and secured an interview between Aa and Rat Vs Possum, as well as a mixtape they made for us all special like on the eve of their Australian tour.

Matt (Rat Vs. Possum): What band(s) have musically-excited you the most in NYC (or LA, John?) at the moment?

Josh (Aa): I do mastering and vinyl cutting work as a job so I hear quite a lot of local stuff before it comes out. I’m actually excited by labels here in NYC too, not just bands. Labels are just killing it – putting out cool records and in general being run by really passionate/awesome/responsible people. The ones off the top of my head are Captured Tracks, Sacred Bones, Blind Prophet, RVNG, Hospital Productions, Woodsist, and DAIS Records. Bunch of others. Brooklyn is jam-packed with good labels.

John (Aa): Liturgy and Knyfe Hyts are keeping rock weird and heavy in Brooklyn. Missing Hyts’ 4/20 show tomorrow is killing me! Haven’t really been to a ton of shows in LA but new HEALTH material is definitely exciting.

Matt: Do you know much about Australian music? Any favourites?

Josh: Not too much honestly, but I recently mastered a record for an Australian band called Slug Guts that I thought was awesome. That came out on Sacred Bones, mentioned above. They just played here in Brooklyn and it was great to finally see them live. I also did a full length for a band called To The North that was great.

Matt: Emo or Christian rap?

Josh: Sucks. Take any mediocre rock band and call them Christian and now they instantly have an audience. So easy, so crap. Impossible to respect. Does Australia have as much religious nonsense as America does?

Daphne (Rat Vs. Possum): What’s more important on a lengthy, transcontinental tour: enough t-shirts, or an adequate supply of underwear?

Josh: Shirts. I’ll freeball it on the underwear side. No big deal.

John: Gotta go with underwear on the assumption that I probably also didn’t bring enough pants, vis a vis Josh’s solution. I think I performed without a shirt for most of the first four years of the band, anyway?

Daphne: What would be worse – living in an iron lung, or living with locked-in syndrome (where you’re wholly conscious but fully paralysed)?

Josh: Hard to choose, but the question reminded of the scene in The Big Lebowski where they meet the famous TV writer in an iron lung. I’m just remembering that was a funny scene.

John: Iron lung, obviously, at least then I could fucking kill myself.

Kieran: Vans or Cons?

Josh: These days, neither. Getting older – I need arch support, man. Both of those brands fuck up your feet.

John: My beat-the-fuck-up old Vans, based-style.

Kieran: What’s your favourite type of hot sauce?

Josh: The hot sauce they use at the falafel place in my neighborhood (Williamsburg, Brooklyn). That stuff will rip a man’s nutsack off.

John: Red sauce at Taco Zone in LA is definitely the hot sauce I have ingested the most of over the past few months.

Matt: Are you aware of the drop bear problem we’ve had in Adelaide recently and what precautions will you be taking to avoid an attack?

Josh: No idea what you’re talking about. Will I be able to fend off an attack with a weapon? Maybe we’ll be issued something at customs. I grew up in the countryside, I know how to hunt and shoot. My cousin shot a chipmunk with a 12 gauge shotgun once. It disappeared into a little red dust cloud.

John: The fuck is a drop bear? We’re buying machetes at the airport.

Tracks:

1. Mother Love Bone – Chloe Dancer
2. Cam’ron – Killa Cam
3. Kate Bush – The Morning Fog
4. Erykah Badu – The Healer
5. Sade – When am I Going to Make a Living
6. Wiz Khalifa – Mezmorized
7. Whitney Houston – Nothin But Love
8. Tanlines – Saw
9. Fleetwood Mac – Seven Wonders
10. Sex-O-Sonique – I Thought It Was You
11. Realist Alive – Lil B (Produced by Clams Casino)
12. DMX – What My Name (Chopped & Screwed by DJ Screw)

“Only obliquely related to Aa, this is just a bunch of great songs by some of my favorite artists, mostly pop, rap, and R&B, with overarching vibes of sunshine, spiritual growth, and emotional questing.” – John Atkinson.

LISTEN HERE