The thing I like most about writing for Syffal, other than the outlet it provides me to describe music with explicit sexual verbiage, is that we only write about music we absolutely love.

We aren't critics and we aren't journalists. Thus, we don't comprehend 'being objective.' And 'puff piece' IS in our vocabulary. And if the music warrants it, we will literally puff the shit out of that figurative pole.

So when it comes to Radiation City I'm all like: Puff, Puff, Breathe. Puff, Puff, Breathe.

The EP they released last year, Cool Nightmare, was one of my favorites. Rad City was the only band to hit the trifecta in my year end lists; clinching spots amongst my best songs, best albums, and best new artists selections. To say that I love them would be an understatement.

When I listen to Cool Nightmare I'm transformed into Lenny from Of Mice and Men and the music is the cute little mouse. I attempt to embrace the intangible sound, but I'm afraid that if I were somehow able to get a hold, I'd smother it with huggable passion.

Seriously, just the other day while listening I found my self grasping the invisible air in front of me. I looked like a cat who got into some Fun Dip. Then my wife walked in on me and it totes made for an awkward moment.

Anyhoo...I'm sure you could imagine my excitement when I found out Rad City was releasing a full length album on May 21st titled Animals in the Median. I'm crossing off the days with hearts on my limited edition 2013 Rad City Calendar.

I had the honour of sitting down with the non-freckled folks of the band in the virtual Syffal conference room to talk about Cool Nightmare, Animals in the Median, and play word games. Enjoy.

Radiation City interview GO:

SYFFAL: Please list The Members of the band in order of the number of freckles on their body AND tell us the shape their biggest freckle resembles:

Rad City: We've got birthmarks, moles, nipples, tans... but not much in the way of freckles. So, in no particular order the band is Cameron, Lizzy, Randy, Matt, Patti.

SYFFAL: Okay, 3 dudes and 2 girls. When the dudes' periods sync up on tour, who is the bitchiest, and what do the girls do to escape the madness?

Rad City: Dudes' periods don't always do duets like dudettes' do, do they? In any event, Randy is the bitchiest when the moon gets to pulling. Cam's more of a bitch's bitch, Matt's more the sullen bitch. Randy, being the elder bitch has that hint of crotchety impatience that puts his bitching over the top. We're not ones to escape the madness, though, so much as embrace it head on. Sometimes that's with compassion and tenderness, sometimes that's with aggression, bombast, bitching.

SYFFAL: Speaking of touring, I see that you have one that will kick-off in May. I think many underestimate the vigorous schedule of a touring musician and the uncomfortably close quarters. Who is confined to the back of the van because of their problem with the flatulence? What is their punishment for flatulencing too much?

Rad City: Cameron is a gas in the van. A real gas. He punishes himself with fast food, which starts the cycle all over again.

SYFFAL: YOU ARE DISGUSTING CAM. I can't decide which song off of your 2012 EP Cool Nightmare is my favorite: Winter Blind or Find It Of Use. Tell me which one I like better so that my personalities can stop arguing with each other.

Rad City: You like Find It Of Use better.

SYFFAL: Hmmmmm. I don't know Winter Blind is pretty dope with that shoe-bop-doo-woppyness. And then there is Eye Of Yours that is so spectacularly linear in it's creation; by the time I get to the end I can't remember how the begining even sounded.

Fuck, this didn't help me because I love EVERYTHING. In particular, I can't get over how you make a piano sound so beautiful, yet, disturbingly haunting. How do you capture this sound? Your answer must include the words: goosepimples and sensuality.

Rad City: Capturing the performance is part of the picture. Treating the sound is another part. We tend to move pretty fast (if methodically) when we're recording so we don't always allow ourselves the luxury of dialing in THE sound when we're capturing it in the first place. Since we're engineering and producing as we go, it can be pretty easy to focus on nuts and bolts and forget that it's all in service of a larger vehicle. We don't ever want to lose that awareness of our trajectory, so, we get it in the neighborhood and worry about the exact address later. As long as we steer between the lines we tend to do all right, and occasionally we get exactly to where we wanted to be without having to fuss about it much at all. 

Recording the song Hacienda is a perfect example of this playing out. We were staying at this beautiful villa in Napa valley on tour, tracking on the grand piano that was in one of the living rooms of the place. The house was one of those gianormous dream pads equipped to facilitate all manner of debauchery. Like it was made out of Blow. The couple days we were there we were eating better than we had in weeks, having weird fever dreams, hearing and feeling things that weren't really there...the mojo of this place was off the charts, it would give you goosepimples.

So Matt starts fooling around on the grand piano, and the room just sounds amazing. We're just having him play so we can get levels but we're letting the tracks roll. We come back to the take later and are instantly transported back to the feeling of that day, the sensuality that was palpable as a ghost. It sounds like you're in the room. But maybe to outsiders it doesn't FEEL like you're in room. So adding in a little color from there (whether it's an ethereal voice, or a transient reverb, or harmonic distortion, or whatever) is just a way to help the listener move from empathy to that sympathy. To let them feel the room instead of just hearing it.

SYFFAL: Whoa. That answer made it move a little. I tell my friends that listening to you music is like walking through a quaint neighborhood in the early 60's that is so perfect it's almost creepy. How do you describe your music? In Haiku Form please:

Rad City: I think you pretty much nailed it, so I'll quote the great Kobayashi Issa:

Autumn wind -
mountain's shadow
wavers

Don't weep, insects -
Lovers, stars themselves,
Must part

and another from Day Job Orchestra just for kicks:

I have a business
installing Styrofoam nuns.
Fuck a fruit basket.

SYFFAL: Okay, now we are going to play a game of mad libs. I've prepared your answer already. This is a true story about your inspiration behind the sound on your new album, but I am missing some details...you just need to fill in the blanks. So please pick:

Member in the Band: Matt
Adjective: husky
Small Creature: sugar glider
Exclamation: Fresh!
Verb (past tense): ate
Kitchen Tool: spatula
Adjective: manly
Another Memeber in the Band: Randy
Part of the body: dingus
Another Part of the body: elbow pit

Rad City: Before recording our new album, Matt noticed that a husky sugar glider crawled in his pants. He screamed Fresh! and ate his way into the kitchen where he grabbed a spatula and started beating the creature with manly passion. This didn't solve the problem so Randy put his dingus into Matt's elbow pit until he screamed loud enough to make the creature come out. This inspired our sound on Animals in the Median.

SYFFAL: Who yells 'fresh!,' seriously? Lets move on....your publicist La seems totes coolio. I want to hang out with her and try on thick rimmed sunglasses at a local thrift shop. BUT she won't let me hear the new album, Animals in the Median, yet because she is afraid I'm going to steal the backing tracks to use on my next rap album titled Humans on the Shoulder. What can I expect to hear?

Rad City: You can expect to hear the bar raised. We took the soundscape that we started building with Cool Nightmare and expanded it, sculpted it. We upped the production value, for one, sitting a pro down at the mixing desk and surrounding him with an amazing collection of outboard gear (Sonny DiPerri, Jackpot! Studios). For two, we had nearly a full year to hone our chops and improve our working relationship. The musicianship, the arrangements, the songwriting...pretty much across the board we've grown as a band, and hopefully that has translated into the songs.

Also, and not to put a damper on Humans on the Shoulder, but the record is already being remixed into a rap album by G Force (AKA Calvin Valentine). It'll feature a ton of different rappers from all over including ILLmaculate, Only One, Sam Trump, Kung Foo Grip, Blimp, Juicy J, and TxE, to name a few. We've heard some of the roughs so far and it's going to be amazing.

SYFFAL: I guess what I'm trying to say is....will it give my nether regions goose bumps?

Rad City: Yes, positively. There are certain moments of the new songs that were specifically designed for that purpose exactly.

SYFFAL: One day I want to meet all of you in person. What part of my body would you not autograph? ....just so I know.

Rad City: I'm not saying everywhere is necessarily on the table, but I don't think there's anywhere we have to take off the table right now.

SYFFAL: I'm manscapping my patch into a biohazard symbol as we speak. I love you intimate bastards. Thank you for taking time to play some word gamez with me. Please plug whatever you want below.

Rad City: Support arts education!