Music: Walking Again

The Walkmen often get shit. Why? Some think things have come a little too easily for the five childhood buddies who hail from our nation’s capitol. (Recently overheard at a local watering hole: “You mean those pampered New York boys?”) Hmm. Where have we heard that before? Here’s a few sources of envy or revulsion, depending on your point of view:

· Yes, they formed and currently live in that epicenter of hype, New York City.

· Three of the band’s members were part of ’90s next-big-thing busts, Jonathan Fire*Eater.

· They have their own NYC studio, Marcata, which has hosted Walkmen pals the French Kicks, among others.

· Their preppy appearance — often sporting blazers, sweaters, button-up shirts, boyish faces and clean-cut hair, they look like they just walked out of an early Bret Easton Ellis novel.

· Frontman Hamilton Leithauser’s urgent vocals and world-weary tales are apt to yield more than one “what’s this pretty boy crying about” response.

· They licensed one of their songs for use in a car commercial, which debuted on the Super Bowl, no less.

Facts? Yes. The whole story? No.

The band’s 2002 debut, Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone, is a lo-fi gem, melding chilly piano suites with the urgency of early U2. Their stellar 2004 follow-up, Bows + Arrows, moves into a more visceral sonic direction, emphasizing the band’s penetrating live shows and their not-so-secret weapon, the locomotive that is drummer Matt Barrick.

CityBeat recently spoke to Leithauser, whose appropriately fuzzy, cell-phoned voice emanated from the band’s tour bus in Iowa.

CityBeat: Were you surprised Lollapalooza was canceled (they were to appear on the tour’s second stage)? I thought it was one of the best lineups they’ve ever had.

Hamilton Leithauser: Yeah, I actually would agree. I was just as surprised as anyone else. I thought it seemed like it was gonna work. But I’m just as excited to be doing what we’re doing (smaller, more intimate venues) — it kind of worked out fine for us.

CB: The new record captures your live sound much better than the last one, especially your voice. Was that something you consciously tried to do?

HL: Yeah, but it’s hard. I just sing differently live ’cause when you’re in the studio it’s hard to re-create the atmosphere of a live setting. And I think some people (in the band) thought we were getting a little too dark or serious sounding. So we decided that we wanted to make things more fun. Because when we started, the live shows didn’t have the energy that they do now.

CB: “The Rat” (the album’s undeniably epic blast furnace of a single) is getting the most attention, but I keep going back to “My Old Man.” It’s got these great, subtle shifts in tone. And Matt — he’s one my favorite drummers.

HL: Yeah, uh, he’s the best. It sounds really good turned up loud. It’s all about the maracas that come in at the end that just sort of build. I’m glad to hear that. I always root for us to play that song. That song and “Thinking of a Dream I Had” and the last song are my favorites on the new record.

CB: I read somewhere that it took you like five minutes to come up with most of the lyrics to “The Rat.”

HL: “The Rat” was an example of when our songwriting works. The beat had been lying around — whenever he was bored, Matt would play that beat ’cause he just looked so funny playing it. And then Paul (Maroon) had these chords, and we sort of threw the beat on the chords. It’s funny how quickly it came together. And then we thought maybe everybody should just go die-hard: We were like, “Hit the eighth note as hard as you can!” And for some reason I just came up with the melody, and the words fit right there. But it wasn’t five minutes; it was more like a 30-minute thing (laughs).

CB: How did growing up in the D.C. scene impact you guys?

HL: Well, what’s nice about that is that they have all those ethics, all those Dischord bands. When I was 14 or 15, I would go to shows — they were always all ages and were always five bucks. So it was really accessible. I’d always go to the Fugazi shows — I was a little young for Bad Brains, but all the older guys (in the band) did that — and Nation of Ulysses and The Make-Up. I listened to all those bands throughout high school and college.

CB: It’s interesting that you guys shy away from any kind of political statements, in the songs or otherwise.

HL: You know, honestly, maybe going to all those Fugazi shows turns you off to politics. When you’re 14 at a show, and you’re nervous to be there, and then they throw, like, 15 speakers up there before the band played, and they’d all be so passionate and so mad about their cause when, in fact, so many of those people were full of shit, and it would really sort of sour you to the whole thing. They just blended together. I was there to hear music.

CB: So did you guys get any shit for allowing “We’ve Been Had” to be used in the Saturn commercial?

HL: Well … not really. Ya gotta pay the rent.

This article appears in Aug 4-10, 2004.