Graduating from playing in a punk-rock band to producing dance music
is nothing new. In fact, ever since “Losing My Edge,” it seems
practically mandatory: You cut your teeth in an indie rock combo,
then you can start cutting disco 12-inches. Not quite so for
Julian Grefe of Pink Skull. Back in the early thousands, (“I’m really
bad with years,” he says), Grefe was playing keyboards and guitar with
Frenchkiss Records band
S PRCSS. But at the same time, he was
DJing Philadelphia’s acclaimed long-running, genre-
mixing dance
party Making Time.
“I’ve been playing music since I was like 6,” says Grefe. “I’d been
in orchestra or band, and a couple bands on Gern Blandsten. And I’ve
been making house records for years—stuff for Plastic City, 611,
Society Hill, Soul Society—while being in bands. S PRCSS was the
closest I came at the time to putting my love of electronic music in a
live music arena.”
Eventually, Grefe left S PRCSS”I was completely fed up with being in
S PRCSS, and they were fed up with me being in S PRCSS also, so it was
a mutual parting of ways”and Pink Skull was born. “I had done a mix CD
for Dave P’s RVNG label with my friends Ian [Kelly] and Justin
[Geller], and it was fun and low key, and I was just like, ‘Fuck it,
let’s work on a record together.'”
Of course, the real reason you see so many rock musicians transition
into electronic
circles is because nobody who truly loves music
only loves one kind. Your favorite rock band might be listening to
funk, techno, rap, country, or classical at this very moment.
Terrifying. And indeed, Grefe has been collecting a variety of records
for a staggering amount of time.
“I’ve been buying records since I was 12,” says Grefe, now 34. He
currently estimates his vinyl collection at “five or six thousand.” “I
probably should have a lot more but, you know, sometimes they come and
go, and sometimes you have less liquid income than you’d like. But I
still have records that I’ve had since I was 10. I still have my copy
of Zeppelin III since fourth grade. Fishbone’s It’s a
Wonderful Life from when I was 12. I do also have the first techno
record that I got, Stakker Humanoid, I have the 12-inch for that.”
But while diverse tastes make for great record collections, they
don’t always fuse to make great records.
Pink Skull’s first record, the Blast Yr Akk EP, was a more
strictly electronic effort, minimal and built on microsamples from
their combined record collections—a fine but not mind-blowing
record. But in the last year and a half, Pink Skull have expanded to
become more of a full-fledged band, combining
electronics,
samples, and live playing, equally able to jam in the studio as
onstage.
“I finally learned how to do what I wanted to do with the electronic
dance music and not have it sound like a bunch of indie-rock kids
playing electronic music. Which, not to sound like an ass, is kind of
something that happens pretty often. There are a couple of bands that
are pretty popular right now that sound like a bunch of kids who were
in punk bands and were like, ‘I want to make dance music,’ and, you
know, they miss a lot of stuff, although there are happy
accidents.”
Pink Skull’s recent sophomore album, Zeppelin 3, is less
happy accident than it is a perfect synthesis of electro, disco, funk,
hiphop, psych, rock, dub, and more, all mixed and sampled and screwed
together to make for one mad house party. Evidence of Grefe’s record
geekery is everywhere from the album’s obvious title, to tracks like
“Fuck ‘Dead or Canadian,’ Let’s Play ‘Homeless Guy or Arthur Baker!'”
“Itchy Woman,” and “Bubblelog Aftermath,” which reference Baker (duh),
the Eagles, and Aphex Twin, respectively. Indeed, Zeppelin 3 might be the only album that will ever feature vocal tracks from both K
Records darling Mirah and the Wu-Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah (Grefe
mastered an old Mirah record and traded the vocal track for payment;
Ghostface appears on Plastic Little’s “Crambodia,” which Pink Skull
remixed).
The album begins in earnest, after an instrumental intro, with the
single “Gonzo’s Cointreau,” possibly the funnest hand
percussion
and rubber bass house workout since Zongamin’s “Bongo Song.” “Unicorn
Harpoon” lays unintelligible, smurfy vocal snippets over a strutting
bass line and a loose, shaking beat. “Itchy Woman” is a psyched-out,
echoing synth rave-up that hits a near-sexual vocal climax. Elsewhere,
Pink Skull delve into hazy, bong-addled funk rock grooves (“Zing Zong,”
“U.g.uo.aaaahhhhh”), ambient guitar goofs (“Sslit”), slightly detourned
techno pulse (“Cry for Meee”), and, of course, Plastic Little’s
off-the-wall party rap.
For their live shows, Pink Skull consist of Grefe on keys, computer,
and vocals, surrounded by a bassist, a guitarist, and two live
drummers; although their Seattle debut will be a stripped-down setup,
featuring only Grefe and the two drummers. “The larger setup definitely
lends it to being a little Kraut rockier experience,” says Grefe. “But
the smaller setup, which we play with quite a bit, is very dancey.”
And what, if anything, did Grefe learn from his indie-rock days that
applies to Pink Skull?
“Just: Don’t be an asshole.” 