The Walkmen
Aug. 18 & 19, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St. (betw. Bowery & Chrystie St.), 212-533-2111; 8, $20.
The adventure of the Fung Wah Bus usually begins when you reach the bus stop, but it hardly ever ends there. On busy days, a ticket in hand never guarantees a seat, and the sight of fisticuffs near the entrance is commonplace. Any pushovers lacking the will to fight will indeed be appropriately pushed over. And once you’re on the bus, the ride can be frightening, unpredictable and generally unpleasant. Still, cheap prices attract adventurous passengers willing to take chances on a line with a known reputation for breakdowns, foul odors and inconsistent scheduling.
Five of these adventurous passengers are members of indie-rock band The Walkmen, who have grown quite familiar with the bus over the years. With band members and practice spaces in New York and Philadelphia, nearly every day of the week required half of the band to make the trip while recording the new record, You & Me.
Perplexed as to how an album chock full of enchanting nostalgia could surface under these bizarre circumstances, we asked lead singer Hamilton Leithauser to shed some light on the situation.
NY Press: How did you guys end up spending so much time on the bus?
Hamilton Leithauser: I live in Manhattan, Pete and Walt live in Brooklyn, and Matt and Paul live in Philadelphia. We were doing the trip two days a week and they were coming up once or twice as well— sometimes neither camp wanted to make the trip. It was actually probably a good thing for writing, because it put a certain pressure on the times the five of us were together. Our practice space in Chelsea was an on-again-off-again illegal nightclub, so some Mondays we'd come in and the place would be absolutely disgusting—poorly cleaned up vomit on the stage and bottles everywhere. The toilets, which were on the second floor, leaked and dripped down through the ceiling, so occasionally it would hit you on the head. In Philadelphia, we rented a space from our friends for $75 a month...If it's moderately cold outside, it's 20 degrees colder inside, and vice versa if it's hot.
It seems that there are more reliable bus lines that travel between the two cities at the same price, so why take the Chinatown bus?
HL: It's cheaper. Although now that Bolt Bus can be $1 for a trip to DC. Now that is an undeniable deal. Amtrak is frighteningly expensive, and it seems like Greyhound is obsolete.
Anyone who’s ever ridden this bus line has a story to go along with it. What are yours?
HL: I've been broken down on the side of the rode several times. There are a surprising amount of those weird, unexplained stop-offs at rest stops, where some guy will be standing in the middle of a dark parking lot, and the bus will drive up to him and he will exchange some brief words in Chinese with the driver.
A few weeks ago, we were stuck in awful traffic getting out of Manhattan. They were showing "Message in a Bottle" starring Kevin Costner and Robin Wright Penn, and the traffic was so bad that the credits were rolling by the time we got into the tunnel. We finally got onto the Jersey Turnpike like 2 hours after we'd left, and the driver pulled off to the first rest area and some woman in the front row yelled just "Motherfucker!" The driver was so visibly scared of her that he slowly turned the bus back onto the Turnpike and we never stopped.
You & Me has been said to be the product of your obsession with rock & roll legends like Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley. What draws you most towards these classic sounds and production techniques?
HL: They're just the kings of rock so it would be impossible to not be influenced by them. We love the classic "whole-band-in-the-room" sound that those guys and countless others were doing. All of these people have a pervading optimism that is so likable—it's something we admire and wanted to try to incorporate into our stuff.
Some critics are calling You & Me a return to the sound of your firrst two records. Do you feel pressure to return to earlier sounds?
HL: We recorded some of this record in the same room as Bows and Arrows, so maybe that has to do with the sound. The pacing on this record took honestly 30 or 40 hours of discussion. I guess some people are still always asking about “The Rat.” I don't know why. Maybe we will redo it for our next record. Or just put out an EP of six or seven live performances. Or we could ruin it forever by doing a reggae or dance hall version.
In 2006, you released a record of Harry Nilsson covers, and you recently recorded four Neil Hagerty songs. What’s next on the cover song agenda?
HL: I'd like to do Dr. John, or maybe Van the Man.
What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming show at the Bowery Ballroom?
HL: Gin and tonics.
Aug. 18 & 19, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St. (betw. Bowery & Chrystie St.), 212-533-2111; 8, $20.
The adventure of the Fung Wah Bus usually begins when you reach the bus stop, but it hardly ever ends there. On busy days, a ticket in hand never guarantees a seat, and the sight of fisticuffs near the entrance is commonplace. Any pushovers lacking the will to fight will indeed be appropriately pushed over. And once you’re on the bus, the ride can be frightening, unpredictable and generally unpleasant. Still, cheap prices attract adventurous passengers willing to take chances on a line with a known reputation for breakdowns, foul odors and inconsistent scheduling.
Five of these adventurous passengers are members of indie-rock band The Walkmen, who have grown quite familiar with the bus over the years. With band members and practice spaces in New York and Philadelphia, nearly every day of the week required half of the band to make the trip while recording the new record, You & Me.
Perplexed as to how an album chock full of enchanting nostalgia could surface under these bizarre circumstances, we asked lead singer Hamilton Leithauser to shed some light on the situation.
NY Press: How did you guys end up spending so much time on the bus?
Hamilton Leithauser: I live in Manhattan, Pete and Walt live in Brooklyn, and Matt and Paul live in Philadelphia. We were doing the trip two days a week and they were coming up once or twice as well— sometimes neither camp wanted to make the trip. It was actually probably a good thing for writing, because it put a certain pressure on the times the five of us were together. Our practice space in Chelsea was an on-again-off-again illegal nightclub, so some Mondays we'd come in and the place would be absolutely disgusting—poorly cleaned up vomit on the stage and bottles everywhere. The toilets, which were on the second floor, leaked and dripped down through the ceiling, so occasionally it would hit you on the head. In Philadelphia, we rented a space from our friends for $75 a month...If it's moderately cold outside, it's 20 degrees colder inside, and vice versa if it's hot.
It seems that there are more reliable bus lines that travel between the two cities at the same price, so why take the Chinatown bus?
HL: It's cheaper. Although now that Bolt Bus can be $1 for a trip to DC. Now that is an undeniable deal. Amtrak is frighteningly expensive, and it seems like Greyhound is obsolete.
Anyone who’s ever ridden this bus line has a story to go along with it. What are yours?
HL: I've been broken down on the side of the rode several times. There are a surprising amount of those weird, unexplained stop-offs at rest stops, where some guy will be standing in the middle of a dark parking lot, and the bus will drive up to him and he will exchange some brief words in Chinese with the driver.
A few weeks ago, we were stuck in awful traffic getting out of Manhattan. They were showing "Message in a Bottle" starring Kevin Costner and Robin Wright Penn, and the traffic was so bad that the credits were rolling by the time we got into the tunnel. We finally got onto the Jersey Turnpike like 2 hours after we'd left, and the driver pulled off to the first rest area and some woman in the front row yelled just "Motherfucker!" The driver was so visibly scared of her that he slowly turned the bus back onto the Turnpike and we never stopped.
You & Me has been said to be the product of your obsession with rock & roll legends like Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley. What draws you most towards these classic sounds and production techniques?
HL: They're just the kings of rock so it would be impossible to not be influenced by them. We love the classic "whole-band-in-the-room" sound that those guys and countless others were doing. All of these people have a pervading optimism that is so likable—it's something we admire and wanted to try to incorporate into our stuff.
Some critics are calling You & Me a return to the sound of your firrst two records. Do you feel pressure to return to earlier sounds?
HL: We recorded some of this record in the same room as Bows and Arrows, so maybe that has to do with the sound. The pacing on this record took honestly 30 or 40 hours of discussion. I guess some people are still always asking about “The Rat.” I don't know why. Maybe we will redo it for our next record. Or just put out an EP of six or seven live performances. Or we could ruin it forever by doing a reggae or dance hall version.
In 2006, you released a record of Harry Nilsson covers, and you recently recorded four Neil Hagerty songs. What’s next on the cover song agenda?
HL: I'd like to do Dr. John, or maybe Van the Man.
What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming show at the Bowery Ballroom?
HL: Gin and tonics.
