Welcome to ZINETERVIEWS, an ongoing monthly feature where  DUM DUM contributor Bryxan Amsterdam conducts an interview with a band via text message. For this special L.A. Zine Fest installment, we pay a special tribute to the Pacific Northwest as Bryxan lives in Olympia, WA and can’t join us this weekend to table. This zineterview features a conversation with Jason Baxter, the guy behind Seattle’s USF and creator of this awesome LOL ’90s VHS mixtape.

5:05pm

Text message from Brian Amsterdam (BA): Hey wazzzz up

Text message from Jason Baxter (JB): Word just wrapped practice it’ll prolly take me a half hour to drive home then I am golden

BA: Great

5:50pm

BA: hey / ready?

JB: Fire away

BA: cool. So. On tour right now? Going to be?


6:00pm

JB: We leave august 6th for a west coast tour with Big Spider’s Back. Beyond that, it sounds like there’s a chance we’ll be back down the coast in the very near future.

BA: word. have any favorite cities to play on the west coast?

JB: Oregon has traditionally been very receptive to us and it’s a great city. LA is simultaneously majestic and disgusting, and we’re fortunate to have friends down there. Really everything along the 5 is beautiful and awesome.

BA: Hah! LA is so weird- thats why I love it. So/ big spiders back is on yr LP ocean sunbirds , which is the first LP ov yers I heard. Can you talk a bit about the making ov?

JB: Oh, awesome! Yeah absolutely. We recorded it during a really brutal harsh winter. Basically snowed in at our apartments. We were compelled to try and make this really sunny, tropical escapist music. We didn’t anticipate that so many other artists would be following a similar tack at the same time. Yair (BSB) I met at a coffee shop. He was a barista and he was selling his EPs for five bucks. I was a huge, huge fan almost right away and he appeared on my radio show a lot. He’s been a good friend and an awesome collaborator and we’ve done three songs together now

BA: what was yer radio show?

JB: It was a shoegaze/ambient/dreampop/drone/etc show called “floating in space” on the university of washington student radio station (of which I was gen. manager)

6:15pm

BA: Ah awesome. Also I feel yr weirdness about everyone jumpin on the beachy wagon. My friend and I were just talking about how we want to silkscreen Holy Grail reverb pedals in neon and call it Beach Verb.

JB: Ha ha that’s brilliant! Yeah on the one hand it’s cool that there was this crazymomentofunanimouscobsciousness but the backlash was swift and we have a bit of a stigma to our band
“cobsciousness”? Ha ha

BA: Haha well I’m sure it won’t stick. what you think about collective consciousness?

JB: It’s a phenomenon, for sure. I had the oppurtunity to interview Pictureplane on wednesday and we talked about how Twitter is like that. Twitter is like telepathy. Instant thought. Global audience. Or rather, instant communication. But a huge amount of people

BA: yeah. I am really interested in seeing how they develop their game (so to speak). So you write for t- Shit sry Didn’t mean to interrupt

JB: And I think It’s meant to be sort of interior. And it’s always invariably mundane. But anyway.
No sweat!

BA: You are friends with the FMLY crew. How’d that come about?

JB: We don’t know them super well, but I guess it’s via Truman Peyote? We’ve been huge fans ever since Light/Lightning, and I can’t believe we finally get to play with them in LA.

BA: Yeah, talk about a fun live show. I saw them a few winters back at death by audio in Brooklyn. They were touring with Many Mansions at the time selling shrooms at their merch table. The PEACED TOGETHER split they both did was killer.

JB: Yes it very very much was!

BA: tell me about some other records youve been digging on lately

JB: In the past two weeks I’ve heard some stuff that really knocked me over. The new Liturgy album, the new Pictureplane album, and an EP by a dude called starcirclememory that Debacle Recs put out.

BA: Sweet. will you be playing DBL fest?

JB: Yeah! On the same day as Big Spiders Back, Secret Colors, Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, Plankton Wat, and this Seattle band U who are my favorite band on earth right now

BA: Cool. I’ll be playing the night of the 21st with Paintings For Animals. Blue Sabbath Black Cheer is fucking amazing. Saw them at the Seattle Occultural Music Festival this year. They played the jewelbox

JB: Can’t wait for that.

BA: Yeah seriously. They slay

JB: Yeah I only saw them once four years ago but they really left an impression heh. Harsh. noise.

BA: no doubt. the good stuff. I like being in the northwest. The noise / drone scene here is great! Hard to find a good taco spot tho…

JB: Ha ha. That’s fair. It’s a mixed bag.

BA: Indeed . So when is the next LP being dropped?

JB: October 25th. We’ve been sitting on that record for a year!

BA: sshittttt man. that hurts but .. fucking great news for fans. Got a title yet?

JB: Yeah it’s called The Spray and it’s based on a short story of the same name by Jonathan Lethem. My phone almost autocorrected to “same bane” which is awesome.

BA: Hahaha I wanted to talk about autocorrect. Or rather bitch about it. Worst and best thing ever.
the Spray // a departure of continuation of stews? STEEZ. Hah

JB: One of my coworkers showed me a site that aggregates hilarious examples of autocorrect mistakes. Ha ha

BA: Hahaha

JB: It’s a thematic departure. It’s maybe a little more deliberate with its sonics and less saturated with texture. It has some really loud, rock-y songs on it. And some sadder ones. In Utero was an early reference point if you can believe it.

BA: Ha! cool. very interested in hearing it. Probably run into you at debacle fest. Have a splendid fucking time on the road!

JB: Yeah totally thanks! Sorry I got a call just then. Awesome time talking with you man!

BA: Yeah for sure! later j

JB: Peace

7:03pm

JB: Unit#?

BA: Wrong text?

JB: Ha ha totally. Techno lols.