Travel Tips from Chris Cain of We Are Scientists


At the beginning of the song 'The Great Escape,' one first hears only one thing; manic, slinky-yet-abrasive sliding Telecaster chords played with just-enough gain and overdrive to allow for a bit of butter and abrasiveness in the tone. The song builds as hurried high-hats enter the party, followed by a beefed-up guitar tone and snare-and-tom hits that wouldn't be out of place in a Bloc Party or Gang of Four song. It is only in this instrumental blanket does the listener first hear frontman Keith Murray's voice. The best way to describe the sound of it is 'urgent.' It seems to plead with the listener with every syllable elongation and pitch change.

Wait a minute; 'plead' is too weak of a word to use: Keith compels the audience when he steps up to the mic, and he has both the lyrics and the machine-gun accompaniment of the band as his weapons.

I'm making my escape
making my escape
tell myself that everything's in shape
everything's in shape
BUT.
ME.

How long can this take
how long can this take
Tell myself that everything is great
everything is great
well how'm I doiiiinnn......

It works even better in the same framework during the second verse:

They're breaking both my hands
breaking both my hands
telling me to take it like a man
take it like a man well
FUCK.
THAT.

This 'dude, we have to do this RIGHT NOW' feeling extends to the overall economy of the songs; think about it like this; the Grateful Dead were said to be 'swirling' when they were at the top of their game as a live band. In that same vein, We Are Scientists must be a rubberband-tight and very efficient tornado. One of those little ones you might see on an A&E documentary that appears and disappears in a flash...but touches down long enough to pulverize the shit out of a house.

So I had to holler at Chris Cain, the man in charge of the lower end of things for the band, after their show at the Roxy. WAS has grown from a band that played L.A. house parties at the beginning of the millenium to a band that plays on Letterman and tours with bands like the Arctic Monkeys, so I had to ask Chris about some of the best spots around the globe to gig and hang out. The words below are his, not mine.