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Dec. 30, 2009
Interview with Mars Retrieval Unit:
1.
I must say, the band name is pretty "out there," probably
meaning that MRU has a pretty good sense of humor. What exactly is
a "Mars Retrieval Unit" and how did it become the band name?
Well,
Murray claims that his PE coach was Mr. U,
but he was not assimilated until much later- coincidence? Mars
Retrieval Unit is an advanced transportation device that retrieves
the dancing soul and takes it to Mars. The MRU was discovered in a
torn up room in the swamps of Northern Florida
in 2004; Rob had been calling to it from the pyramid in which he
resided whilst experimenting with advanced technology.
2.
You guys have been to the
River City Saloon before — enough times to get a live
recording out of one of the gigs, even. What have the
Hood River
crowds been like and what has the response been for past shows
here?
Hood
River loves to be retrieved! By the
end of the night there is always a raving mad dance party - we've
even had a Lego man and a dancing bear join us. Some people get so
excited that they uncontrollably leap onto the stage with us.
River City
is one of our favorite places to play because the stage sounds
phenomenal; we play better here than anywhere and the staff and
crowds are so nice (and they smell nice).
3.
Let's talk a little about band equipment. I'm hearing a lot of
70s influenced
guitar tones, especially. Are you guys using vintage gear?
Rob: I don't actually use any
vintage gear at all for my guitar tone. I have a very complex
gauntlet of processing between my 1998 Paul Reed Smith and my late
1990's Fender HotRod Deville which allows me to get nearly any
sound I want. For a vintage lead tone, I'd have to
give credit to a heavily modified (by me) Ibanez Tubescreamer
(TS10 – probably around 1989). A bigger section of the
vintage sound comes from Joshua's usage of the Moog Little
Phatty synthesizer – it's digital but does such a great job of
simulating a 1970's-era analog synth. We'll have a Hammond B-V
onstage for NYE as well. The drum kit and bass are custom
hand-made and that always helps to create a warm, unique sound.
The only actual piece of vintage gear on stage, currently, is
Chelsea's Saxophone. It's nearly 100 years
old; we believe that Murray
made it in his teens.
4.
I thought I read somewhere that you guys were in different
bands before MRU formed. What were you guys doing before MRU
and how did MRU get together?
Like most bands our age, we
have been performing for a long time, so there are numerous groups
we have formed, but they were all in other parts of the country.
Rob: Glass, ConcordGrape Preservation Society and Plan B all in
Florida; Chelsea had Xingu in Florida; Joel was in a band called
LSD in Chicago- and still plays with them; Josh had LongView
Gunslingers in Massachusetts; Murray was in The Originals in
California, but they played a show with another band named the
Originals and changed to the New Originals.
Like I said earlier, MRU was
discovered in FL officially beginning 12/31/2003, when founding
members Rob Sipsky and Marshall Harrell (bass, now with
San Francisco's “New Monsoon”) put a New
Year's show together with their respective bands Glass and Low
Tide. MRU has been probing potential band mates ever since in
search of the perfect match to create the “one music.”
With the help of craigslist and many years
of changing out members, we have finally assembled. Everybody
still has other projects going as well: Perfect Zero,
Quadraphonnes, Santa Clara Vanguard, Push One Pull One and Minds
Align, covering a vast galaxy of musical styles – from classical,
to marching band, straight jazz, pure progressive rock, to
live-electronic music.
5.
The promo CDs you sent in seem to be all original material.
What can we expect the NYE setlist to be like?
In a word: Dirty. This
is a Pimps N Ho’s themed party, so we're going to get dowwwwn.
We are planning a colorful set list to serve the mind and booty
with a combination of originals, funky and rockin covers and jams.
As far as covers go, we like to play Parliament Funkadelic, Steely
Dan, Michael Jackson, Rush, Heart, Talking Heads, Rick James and
many more... it's hard to predict exactly what will happen.
We have a setlist prepared before each show, but seldom follow it
to the letter.
6.
What do you guys like to do when you're not playing music?
Eat and sleep. Josh plays with
rats, Rob disassembles electronics, Joel's favorite pastime is
when we hang out in Murray's
dungeon, Chelsea likes
Pina Coladas and makin' love at
midnight, and we can't even speak of what
Murray likes to do (court order...?). We're
also spending most of our time right now working on our first full
album to be released in 2010.
7.
You guys have listed a bunch of influential artists on your
MySpace page --- who are you listening to now (whose on your
iPods)?
Murray:
Olivia Newton John's “Twist of Fate”, Steel Panther
Chelsea:
Karl Denson's Tiny Universe Live at Crystal Ballroom 2009,
Prince's “Lotus” album, Zappa
Rob: StereoLab, Boards of Canada, moe.,
Ween, the Orb
Josh: Balazs Szokolay performing Bela
Bartok's Mikrokosmos
Joel: Ozric Tentacles, Jaga Jazzist,
Telefon Tel Aviv, Hiromi Uehara
http://marsretrievalunit.com
http://myspace.com/marsretrievalunit
http://youtube.com/marsretrievalunit
http://twitter.com/mrupdx
marsretrievalunit@gmail.com
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