We’ve got to hand it to the Dodos. Not only have they made one of our absolute favorite records of 2008 (which coincidentally ended up saving our lives at one point), but they were also good enough to sit down and chat with me after sweating through a ridiculously hot set at Siren on Saturday afternoon (say that five times fast). Behold Meric, Logan and Joe as they tiptoe our investigative journalistic high wire to answer 10 particularly burning and/or inane questions and become the first band to get officially Countdown’d!

1. What’s it like playing next to the Cyclone?

Logan: A little unnerving. It came by a few times and I still didn’t know what was going on, I felt it rumbling in my stomach. I still haven’t ridden it yet though.

2. You have to ride it before you leave! Now, you’re off to play the Pitchfork Festival tomorrow, but which would you rather play if there could be only one: Siren or Pitchfork?

Meric: Depends what the weather’s like tomorrow.

Logan: I guess tomorrow we’ll have our own gear so we won’t worry about it as much. All our gear is waiting for us in Chicago.

3. If it’s not yours, how do you get something like a vibraphone for a day? Do you borrow that from someone?

Meric: They (concert organizers) got it for us, as well as the trash can. From what they told us they were pretty excited about it. It offered people in the office a chance to go outside and run around and forage.

4. Well, if you guys could put together your own Siren lineup for today, who would be on the bill?

Joe: Times New Viking, Stephen Malkmus…

Logan: Beach House….

Joe: Thee Oh Sees

Meric: The Moore Brothers (pause)…Led Zeppelin

Logan: Caribou, I’d like to see him again too.

5. Okay, New York vs. San Francisco: RESTAURANTS. Which city is better?

Joe: (laughs) Yikes

Meric: It depends on what you want. Sushi and Mexican – San Francisco. Beef – New York.

And New York has better pizza too

Joe: There’s some really good pizza in SF too though…

Meric: It doesn’t compare. It’s in the water. It’s actual geography and climate that affects the food. I don’t know. Both are good, both have their strengths, I couldn’t pick one over the other.

6. Okay I see, a diplomat. Well what about the music scene: SF or NYC?

Logan: San Francisco has less people moving there specifically to be in a scene. New York is a cesspool of that shit.

Meric: a Petri dish…

Logan: But New York’s got the volume, so there’s gonna be some good stuff. San Francisco is a special little place.

7. Do you remember your first New York show?

Meric: Playing or seeing?

Playing

(some discussion amongst Logan and Meric as to where and when it was)

Meric: I thought it was Pete’s Candy Store, about two years ago in July. We flew in just when it was me and Logan, Pete’s Candy Store is fucking tiny but there were some people there, I remember seeing a lot of friends. We’ve had a lot worse New York shows since then.

Logan: I remember being on the phone after the show calling people being like, “we just played New York!” and they would be all, “oooh fuck dude!” It had a real weight to it; it was a triumphant moment.

8. You’ve gotten so much press since then. How much attention do you pay to your press these days?

Meric: Not much.

No Google Searches for “Dodos” then…

Joe: Maybe like six months ago, when the record came out. When the Pitchfork review came out, it was like “what are they gonna say?” (laughs) That was a weight removed, they were very nice….

9. Well the piece we did about you involved a story of us driving home from SXSW. There were days on end of torrential downpours following us through the Midwest. We had picked up Visiter the day it came out and listened to it for two days straight through the rain and credit it to our very survival. Did you realize you saved our lives?

Meric: (laughs) That’s cool, I’m glad to hear that. It also touches me; I feel like I can relate. We’ve driven through some shitty-ass weather and we’re from California so we’re fucking pussies when it comes to driving through rain, wind, tornadoes and all of that. There’ve been a lot of moments where we’ve been like (mimes steering with frightened look on his face) “auuuuugh!”, during that time when we were writing that record actually. Maybe that had something to do with it?

Perhaps we had a shared zen-like state in the car or something.

Meric: We had a pretty big scare recently actually. We were driving to Rock Island and the sky turned green like it does before a tornado and all at once there was crazy lightning, crazy winds and we turned on the radio and instantly there was a crazy tornado warning so we just turned the fuck around and got out of there (laughs).

10. Okay, last question: what’s the most annoying question to answer in these cattle parade interviews?

Meric: The one that I always hate because I still haven’t found a proper answer – usually after a while you can develop an answer to something even that you hate – and that’s asking us about our name.

Ahh, the origin of the name, sure

Meric: Yeah, it’s changed. I’ve started to just make up random shit.

So what’s the current version of the story then?

(all three laugh)

Meric: I can think of the most annoying question I’ve been asked too though

Jesus, I hope it’s not mine

Meric: (laughs) No no. It was: what question would you most like to be asked and how would you answer it?

Wow. Kind of a variation on mine though…

(all three laugh)

Listen:
“Fools”
“Jodi”

See Also:
- EAR FARM’s Top Albums of 2008 (so far)
- Upcoming Live KEXP Performances
- The Dodos @ Mercury Lounge - 6 April 2008 (pics, live video/MP3)
- Go See The Dodos in NYC
- Band of the Week: The Dodos
- The Dodos @ The Tap Room - 13 March 2008 (SXSW Day 2, Pics)

Visit The Dodos on MySpace.