Band: Women
From: Alberta, Canada
Sound: Warm and pulsing lo-fi goodness from a cold basement in Calgary.
Similar Artists: Clinic, Velvet Underground, Animal Collective, the Zombies
Listen Now: “Black Rice”

What can you do in 29 minutes? Well, you might squeeze in three full sessions of 8 Minute Abs, save 15% on you car insurance (twice over), discover your real purpose in life, or perhaps just count an additional minute before answering the door so your pizza is free from Dominos.

Not like those aren’t worthy endeavors, but may we suggest investing 29 of your precious minutes today elsewhere? Perhaps on listening to one of the most refreshing, visceral (and compact) albums of 2008 in its entirety? Yes? Good then, let’s get acquainted.

Brothers Patrick and Matthew Flegel, Michael Wallace and Christopher Reimer are Women. Let me rephrase that: these four young men from Calgary perform in a band called Women, a band that has just released a lo-fi masterpiece that clocks in at under 30 minutes but brims with deceptively tight pop hooks and languid walls of noise. Bookending these seemingly disparate elements are some of the most tastefully understated angular guitar lines you’re likely to hear, punching and counterpunching their way through the clouded static just to make sure you’re paying attention.

Want to know more? So did we, and a simple Google search for “Women” yielded predictably shady results. “Women + MySpace” didn’t fare a whole lot better; we found a 93-year old-male with the profile name “Most Beautiful Women of MySpace” and a 36-year-old male titled “Sexiest Women on MySpace”. True story, all of it. So instead, we called singer/guitarist Patrick Flegel late last week and had a chat as he dined on eggs benedict from somewhere in Ontario. What we learned was invaluable, that is if you consider Chinese medicine, punching King Khan in the face, and the surreal concept of touring the world after having been together for eight months as valuable information (and who doesn’t?). Turns out it’s a good time to be Women….

EF: Well, an obvious question but where did the name of the band come from?

PF: Honestly there’s no real story behind it or anything, Matt just came into my apartment and he was like, ‘hey man let’s call the band Women’ and I was like (pause) ‘alright!’

EF: Kind of amazing to think there’s not another band out there with that name….

PF: Yeah its kind of ridiculous, although apparently there is one in Brooklyn and there was one in Toronto….but they broke up. And I guess we like the fact that it’s a somewhat generic word you hear everyday and it’s not striking, you know what I mean? It’s ridiculous and so is any other band name you’re gonna pick, you wont have to worry about it, and you’ll hate it a week later anyways.

EF: I suppose it’s just different levels of arbitrariness….

PF: Well, we were gonna go with Finger Eleven but it was taken (laughs)

EF: Right right, well that’s too bad. I wanted to ask about the songwriting process. The album is great in that it has a lot of different feels to it, really poppy one moment with walls of noise the next. Do you have a specific approach to songwriting in general?

PF: It kind of depends on what mood you’re in from day to day, whether it’s loud or quiet or whatever. I don’t think it’s a conscious effort to choose things that sound so different from each other.

EF: Sure, but is there a principal songwriter? What’s the division of labor?

PF: The lyrics, everything is kind of team style, we take ideas off of each other and then come to a conclusion. I can’t think of one song that’s just mine, it’s definitely a team thing.

EF: I was really struck by the cover of the album; where did that image come from?

PF: I got this Chinese medicine textbook from the library and that picture was in it so I cut it out of the book, which probably wasn’t very cool, and photocopied it a bunch of times and put it on my wall. It was on my wall for about a year; I never got sick of it and everyone else liked it as well so we figured out the source of the photo and tracked it down, and I was pretty excited we were able to use it.

EF: How did you meet up with Chad Van Gaalen? He did a lot of recording for the album?

PF: Yeah, Matt was playing drums with him at the time, I dunno exactly what the deal was but Chad had nothing better to do in the winter and neither did we. It was cold outside so we just holed up in his basement and did it.

EF: It’s very ‘lo-fi’, was that a deliberate aesthetic choice or was it born out of circumstance, i.e. ‘we’re recording in a basement’?

PF: We started recording directly to a computer at first and ended up scrapping about a half hour of material because it sounded disgusting (laughs). Basically, we just wanted it to sound like albums we listen to, which are usually old and recorded to tape. We wanted it to sound old.

EF: So what are some of the bands that you guys draw that influence from?

PF: As far as the recording goes one of our favorite bands is Swell Maps. It just sounds really good.

EF: The album’s been out a while now on Flemish Eye, so do you have new stuff that you’re working on?

PF: We have so much stuff it’s actually mildly frustrating; I just want to write new shit and we have a million ideas!

EF: Well you have a seriously long tour coming up. Are you going to be trying out some new stuff on the road?

PF: We’ll see, I think we’re going to be playing off the album mostly. We haven’t even been a band that long really.

Believe it or not, EF is not on the other end of this phone call

EF: So when did you guys get together then?

PF: We’ve been playing music together on and off since we were like 13 but this band has only been together for eight months.

EF: Oh wow. So right when you started recording was basically the inception of the band?

PF: Exactly, which is crazy that all this stuff is happening because we kind of see the album more as a demo (laughs).

EF: So for the next album will the plan be to head to a proper studio to get a bigger sound or are you going to stick to the same aesthetic?

PF: We’ll probably do it ourselves, it’s all speculation right now but I assume we’ll take a chunk of money, buy and rent some gear and do it again.

EF: So is this your first tour?

PF: The first tour I went on was when I was in 16 in a shitty metal band (laughs)

EF: How was that?

PF: It was fun, we didn’t know any better. Then a couple years later I toured in a math rock band but so far with this band we’ve just done a tour of Canada so this is our second tour I guess.

EF: Well you guys are also playing a Halloween show, what are you going to dress up as?

PF: I dunno, but its going to be fucking crazy, in Chicago with King Khan too so it should be an interesting night. I think Matt’s gonna punch King Khan in the face (laughs).

EF: Awesome, I say go for it.

PF: Yeah, thanks.

EF: Have you played New York yet?

PF: No, but apparently we’re playing 25 shows there (laughs).

EF: I saw the CMJ lineup, you have a staggering amount of shows here over the next few weeks.

PF: Yeah it’s exciting, I’ve never been to New York before.

EF: You’ve never been here?

PF: Yeah it’s crazy, like half of my favorite bands are here.

EF: You picked a good time to go, it’s going to be a fun week.

PF: For sure, there are a lot of bands I want to see, hopefully we’re not playing at the same time.

EF: Who are you most excited to see?

PF: I really want to see AIDS Wolf, Psychic Ills, Mahogany, Deerhoof….should be interesting

EF: Your brother’s in the band too. Is there every any sibling rivalry, Gallagher-brothers style?

PF: Oh yeah man (pauses), No, none at all. It’s like we’re usually just worried about whether we have enough blankets (laughs). So I dunno if that’s how it is in Oasis or not?

EF: Probably the same thing but with blow instead of blankets

PF: Yeah, totally.

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Listen:
“Black Rice”
“Group Transport Hall”

See Women Live:
14 Oct – Toronto, Ontario @ Horseshoe Tavern
15 Oct – Jamestown, NY @ Mojo’s
16 Oct – Princeton, NJ @ Terrace Club
18 Oct – Burlington, VT @ The 5th Element
19 Oct – New York, NY @ Cake Shop
21 Oct – New York, NY @ Pop Tarts Suck Toasted CMJ Party
21 Oct – Brooklyn, NY @ KCRW CMJ Party
22 Oct – Brooklyn, NY @ Terrorbird CMJ Party
22 Oct – New York, NY @ Subbacultcha! CMJ Showcase
23 Oct – Brooklyn, NY @ Myopenbar.com CMJ Party
24 Oct – Brooklyn, NY @ Todd P CMJ Party
25 Oct – Brooklyn, NY @ Paste/R5 CMJ Party
26 Oct – Meadville, PA @ Grounds For Change
27 Oct – Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick*
29 Oct – Oberlin, OH @ Oberlin College*
30 Oct – Gambier, OH @ Kenyon College* OCT 30 2008
31 Oct – Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge*
01 Nov – Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock Social Club
02 Nov – Omaha, NE @ Waiting Room*
03 Nov – Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge*
04 Nov – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge*
07 Nov – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey^
08 Nov – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir^
10 Nov – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill^
11 Nov – Visalia, CA @ Cellar Door^
12 Nov – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo^
20 Nov – Groningen, @ Vera #
21 Nov – Den Haag, @ Crossing Borders Festival
22 Nov – Antwerp, @ Trix #
24 Nov – Paris, France @ La Fleche D’Or #
25 Nov – London, UK @ The Borderline #
26 Nov – Bristol, UK @ Cooler #
27 Nov – Glasgow, Scotland @ The Captain’s Rest #
28 Nov – Belfast, Ireland @ Limelight #
29 Nov – Galway, Ireland @ Rosin Dubh #
30 Nov – Dublin, Ireland @ Crawdaddy #
02 Dec – Manchester, UK @ Night and Day Café #
03 Dec – London, UK @ The Windmill
04 Dec – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso

* tour dates w/ King Khan & BBQ Show
^ tour dates w/ Dungen
# tour dates w/ Chad Van Gaalen

Visit Women on MySpace.
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See the list of bands recently featured as EAR FARM’s Band of the Week HERE.