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Improper
Bostonian; October 8-21,
2008 excerpt from: Noise Makers: 10 bands that rock
by Paul Robicheu
Collaboration
isn't the first thing that hard-rock trios usually discuss. But the
schizoid, alt-punk combustion engine known as Ketman is more than the
sum of its parts.
"The
more collaborative the project got, the better it was." says
guitarist/singer Eric Penna, who found the ideal match in bassist-singer
Joe Marrett and drummer Mora
Precarious.
"The melody seems to lie in the interplay of instruments, not just
a guitar riff or bass line. It became a third thing when we played
together.”
"It
became more aggressive," Penna adds while noting, "we maintain
a varied sound that can turn in any direction. You couldn't say Ketman
can't put out a lounge-jazz song." There's no lounge-jazz on
Ketman's bullish new CD El Toro, named after its lead track which
features Spanish-flavored trumpet from Marrett's Hallelujah The hills
bandmate Brian Rutledge. But the disc artfully slices through brutal
changeups that echo '80's post-punk inspirations like Wire and Mission
of Burma.
The
group’s "common weird language" as Marrett Calls it, extends
to collage-like lyrics tat he and Penna often co-write. "We'll both
be thinking about the same feeling for a song," Penna says.
"There'll be something about it that made the two of us think
'Carnival!'"
Boston Phoenix
9-4-08; excerpt from: Road Warriors by Michael Brodeur
Shoulda had a V-6
Starring Ketman
While Mr.
Geissler was Allen-wrenching his bike back together in Brussels, the
trio of Ketman were making the drive in their nameless Chevy Astro (with
a gallon-stretching V-6) to Bloomington, Indiana, to start what would be
a very shitty 2934-mile tour of the Midwest and South, during which the
cheapest gas went for a still-ghastly $3.59 per gallon. Ketman’s
touring strategy (something along the lines of “Go! Go! Go!”)
softens the wallet blow a bit: by keeping all of their tours in the
two-week range, and reining in their drives to focus on one region at a
time, they’re able to tour more frequently (they’ve done nine of
these tours total). Thus what could cumulatively be a financial punch
feels more like a pinch.
Singer/guitarist
Eric Penna recalls a surplus of “very weird people” being drawn to
the band on the multi-state tour, but “not enough of them coming to
the shows” — well, at least in the ones that weren’t called off.
After a disheartening cancellation in Nashville and a sparsely attended
Monday gig at Athens, Georgia’s Caledonia Lounge, a real disaster
awaited the band in Greenville, South Carolina.
“Mora
[Precarious, Ketman’s drummer] had to fly home suddenly for a
work-related crisis,” Penna recounts, a glint of the day’s
panic still registering in his eye. “So we recruited a friend of ours
down there to play drums. After our show that night [with Mora], we
rehearsed from two to eight in the morning, taught him all the songs,
drove eight hours to Greensboro, North Carolina — and there was a note
on the door.” Canceled.
This
particularly demoralizing cancellation might have done in a lesser band,
but Ketman’s a little different. After brief deliberations, the band
opted to show up at the promoter’s house (his idea), set up their
equipment, and play (their idea). This prompted a party, as well as the
intoxication of dozens of Carolinians caught unawares. There’s a small
lesson in here about making the best of a god-awful situation, but the
bigger lesson is this: the successful tour is the one you force to
succeed.
Then they spent
$142 to drive the 724 miles home.
If this all
sounds defeating, you wouldn’t know it by Ketman’s tenacity. A cache
of musical equipment rests in storage in Los Angeles (including a drum
kit, partially melted from an outdoor show), allowing them to fly west
and bump out a week in that city alone: Silver Lake, Hollywood, Santa
Monica, Venice, Long Beach, and San Pedro (a sort of spiritual home for
Penna) can all be visited on one tank of gas, and can all be scheduled
without booking restrictions. The band came home last time with a cool
$1200 — though the airfare, Penna admits, was out of pocket.
“The further
we can go, the better,” he says. “If we are going to lose money,
I’d rather do it somewhere that I’ve never been. There’s a lot of
smoke and mirrors to touring: you have to sacrifice so much to look busy
in order to attract people and achieve something that will actually make
you busy. It’s hard to keep it up.”
Northeast
Performer 8-2008 studio
diary: Ketman:
Unorthodox Mic'ing and Rock AutoHarp By P. Nick Curran
Ketman's
El Torro is a freaked out amalgam of gnarled guitars, rockabilly infused
country anthems, and hooks so mind-numbingly abrasive they feel like a
hard slap in the face. The songs at their most basic are a twisted call
response system between guitarist Erik Penna and bassist Joseph Marret,
laced among blazing guitars and drummer Mora Precarious' overwhelmingly
dense beats. Give the Meat Puppets some cohesion, or Nirvana a
production budget, Ketman takes everything post-punk and early grunge,
rips it down and makes it their own.
Ketman
recorded the entirety of El Torro in their basement studio in Allston
before committing it to two inch tape at New Alliance in Cambridge. The
songs jump from wretched, angular guitar riffs to fluid post-rock
instrumentals, making mockeries of time signatures with abrupt changes
in tempo and emotive dynamics. "We just throw in every weird idea
we can think of," says Marret. "Oh man, I just saw this person
get hit by a car, I just saw a train run by, then I listened to a
Charles Mingus record, and I had this idea, so let's put it in a
song."
Ketman
toured for eleven days along the east coast before entering the studio,
road testing their songs and solidifying their arrangements.
"Punching is much trickier [recording to tape], so we wanted to
make sure that everything was in the performance rather than cover it up
digitally," Penna said. "So even though it was tracked
individually, our performance had to be pretty good to make full use of
the two weeks we worked on it."
El
Torro is slated as a vinyl release, a move not entirely in line with
modern trends, but totally consistent with Ketman's idea of an album.
"It's kind of a sign of the times, with everything going digital,
everything being less cohesive and more song oriented," Penna said.
"We sorta did the opposite of everything." Marret agrees.
"A record should be fuzzy, dirty and tangible.... when you put out
a record, on vinyl, you can eat it, chew it, you can put it on your
stereo with no electronics and hear little bits of it."
The
lead song on El Torro's b-side, "Sinking Ships," showcases a
warped guitar that sounds like Penna ravaged his guitar's pickups with a
slide. "I played with some stereo guitar tones, and that was stereo
chorus with a whammy," Penna said. "I was thinking of Link
Wray, the guitar player, and wanted it to be like he was up here on one
part." On "Oubliette," an alt-country gem and the last
song on the a-side, Ketman opts for an autoharp for added sonic density
instead of turning to delay or an acoustic guitar. "I've always
wanted to do certain things and not rely on delay or acoustic,"
Penna said. "The autoharp feels like an acoustic, but doesn't have
that acoustic vibe."
Soon
after their intended release of El Torro, Ketman will begin recording
another full length, a freakier, horn filled, home-recorded effort.
Performer
spoke with Ketman and sound engineer Ethan Dussault of New Alliance
audio about the techniques and ideas behind their new album, El Torro.
The
drums on the album are huge - like you can feel them physically pushing
the songs to their conclusion - how'd you get that drum sound?
Mora:
We used a big ass kick drum, like a 32"
Erik:
We also built a canopy around them, with far mics at the other end, and
close mics on the kick-drum. We made a dragon of a
canopy
that helped propel some of the lows that you hear.
Joe:
There was talk of it sounding like Steve Albini recording Jon Bonham
(same
question)
Ethan:
First and foremost, Mora got the sound, not me. Secondly, tape decks and
drums should be sold as a package at music stores. For El Toro, we set
out to do all the recording and mixing in the analog domain. We did it
and it rocks hard.
Initially,
what did you think of the material and how did you originally plan to
approach it?
Ethan:
Ketman are a solid bunch of performers with a great take on intricate
heavy noisy rock! The only way to approach it was to let the band
steamroll over the studio. The Result? The Bull.
How
much input did you have on what gear was used? Did you have any type of
"secret weapon?
I
basically made the majority of the decisions on the recording end; i.e.
mic choice, preamp choice etc. I have few mics I rely on that most
people don't use for guitar but overall no secret weapons; Just our
ears, a set of NS-10s [studio monitors] and a 24 track limit.
(On
his guitar sound)
Eric:
I can’t take a lot of credit. I have an amp, you just turn it on and
it sounds good, it’s an old vox ac30. It’s really hard to mess up
recording it or getting a certain sound.
Joe:
Yeah,
it just works.
Did
the more intricate guitar parts need a lot of punch-ins? What was the
strategy behind them?
I
did a lot of punching but mostly it was to clean up noise in the gaps
between parts. In Pro Tools, to get amp buzz out, you just select and
delete. With tape, you have to punch silence into the track. That was
fun and scary.
You
could wipe a great take if you aren't careful.
The
Boston Phoenix 7-4-08 excerpt from: 50 bands 50 states by
Phoenix staff
"One
more reason a growing number of people here aren’t miserable? KETMAN —
who have triple-handedly restored power to the power trio. Of course,
they’ve also restored wit, invention, and brains, but no one wants to
see a 'brain trio.' As far as we’re concerned, they’re the best band
Boston rock’s got."
The Metro 6-20-08; Ketman
‘Bring Da Ruckus’ with ‘El Toro’ by Luke O'neil
Boston’s Ketman have been
punching out their esoteric, thrashy indie-punk for years on a series of
self-released EPs, but this week finally sees the release of their first
full length album, “El Toro.” It’s a nonstop rush of throttling
riffs and genre-tripping excursions. Multi-instrumentalist Joe Marrett
says of the variety, “There are so many cool sounds out there and
tricks to try and pull out of your sleeve, you never know how many
chances you’re going to get to throw your ideas into the mix.”
Eric Penna (who switches off guitar bass and keys with Marrett) says the
range of styles is not a conscious decision. “We’ve tried to remain
tasteful and focus foremost on the songs, sometimes letting the ideas
follow their own path without limiting the possibilities.”
From the mariachi of “El Toro”, to the countryish
“Oubliette” to blistering indie punk throughout, where did you get
such a broad palate?
Penna: I like music that mixes conventions of assorted styles. ...
There’s so much music out there and the pa-late is so wide. It’s sad
to see people not using them to break down more genre walls. I love it
when people get it right, though. Tarantino does a good job of juggling
stylistic conventions. The soundtracks to his mo-vies succeed in the
same way.
It seems like your songs verge uneasily towards the edge of chaos.
Marrett: I kind of like things a little unhinged. You should see our
house. … I like to think about the immortal words of the Wu-Tang
Clan’s “Bring Da Ruckus” before we play.
Penna: When we really nail a set, it’s pretty exhilarating. The set as
a whole can build a lot of its own momentum and sometimes I find myself
trying to catch up to it.
You mentioned you think this record flows together as a whole as
opposed to the more prevalent song oriented-approach.
Penna: I like the way this album is a bit like channel surfing through
different genres. Like hearing Mission of Burma and Hank Williams follow
each other on a jukebox.
There seems to be something very much rooted in ’90s indie rock here.
Is that a time period you take a lot of cues from?
Marrett: I certainly stole a lot of records from my older sister Cassie
as an impressionable youth in the ’90s, but I wouldn’t say we
actively try to sound like we boarded a time machine from that era.
Maybe we take some cues from some of the same sources as those bands
took cues from.
The
Boston Phoenix 6-17-08; Event Pick by Will Spitz
FISHMONGERS
SATURDAY | It’s as if we’d been getting intermittent single pieces
of high-quality sushi, and then, at long last, we’re taken to an
all-you-can-eat extravaganza. After three toothsome nigiri-sized EPs, KETMAN
— one of the city’s most exciting and earsplitting power trios —
unleash their first full-length, El Toro (Lifted and Gifted), a sushi
boat of strangely melodic gut-punch guitars, relentless rhythmic force,
and frenetic back-and-forth sing-shout vocals. They celebrate its
release with GEORGE LEWIS JR., HO-AG,
and AMOROSO — high-grade fish in their own right.
Bring your own wasabi to the Middle East upstairs
The
Boston Phoenix 6-17-08; Playlist: Eric Penna of Ketman: “5
Awesome Songs in a Language Other Than English”
1_“Construçăo,”
Chico Buarque
2_“Initials
B.B.,” Serge Gainsbourg
3_“Qui
Peut Dire,” Françoise Hardy
4_“Abracadabra,”
Sylvie Vartan
5_“Dvacet,” the
Plastic People of the Universe
Ketman
celebrate the release of their new full-length, El Toro, upstairs at the
Middle East Saturday.
Phoenix
online excerpt from Music news 6-13-08 by Matt Ashare
After
three EPs, KETMAN are ready to release a full-length
album. The edgy indie trio celebrate the arrival of El Toro
(Lifted and Gifted) at the Middle East upstairs on June 21 with their
pals in HO-AG, AMOROSO, and “special
guests.” It’s one of those Saturdays when you can plant yourself at
the Middle East all day and do pretty well for yourself.
The Boston
Phoenix On The Dowload: MP3 of the wekk: Ketman; 7-17-07
by Carly Carioli
About this time last
year, we brought you a
track from Ketman’s EP Esperanto.
They’ve since recorded a full-length (finally), but then they wrote so
many new songs that they’ve whipped out a new EP and are releasing it
in advance of the album. Who cares if it’s ass-backwards when it rocks
like a tropical storm? In this "chapter," guitarist Eric Penna
and bassist Joe Marrett (also of Hallelujah the Hills, and Silver Jew
David Berman’s brother-in-law) tag-team on a shoutfest that sounds
something like a couple of David Yows goading Slayer into a cover of the
original MTV theme. And at that, they’re only about half as tufff as
their rad girl drummer, Mora Precarious. Our bad for not posting this
before their record-release party on Thursday, but we hear it was a
ridiculously good time without us. They're now on their way along a
cross-country tour, but they'll be back August 6 at the Middle East for
an absurdly ridonculous show with They Shoot Horses Don't They? and the
almighty Big Bear. You've been warned.
The Boston
Herald; Wednesday, January 9th, 2008. Ketman having a blast
with genre-defying rock. by Barry Thompson
For
all of Allston's lesser qualities, it's a good place to find people who
like to talk about music. For example, if you tracked down Eric Penna
(guitar,vocals), Joseph Marrett (bass, vocals) and Mora Precarious
(drums) of the face-melting rock trio Ketman at the Silhouette Lounge,
they could hold forth on such topics as Brazilian jungle beats,
Ukrainian folk, Public Enemy, Creedence Clearwater Revival and The
Plastic People of the Universe.
And
their music- which you can experience tomorrow at Great Scott - doesn't
sound remotely like any of those. "We try to use anything,"
Penna said. "I don't feel trapped if I'm in a band that can tackle
any kind of genre. I don't ever want people to
expect something. I
can't guarantee within the next week we won't be playing
Gypsy-jazz."
Let's
not complain if Ketman - named for a chapter in Czeslaw Milosz's novel
"The Captive
Mind" - stays the course, whatever that is. While frequently
uptempo and noisy, Ketman flirts with experimentation too much to be
punk, but rarely indulges in prog-rocklike excess.
The
only obvious description of Ketman music: It tends to rule. In the four
years since Ketman formed, the band has self-released three
six-to-seven-track EPs. Now there's a full length CD to look forward to
- or revisit, depending on your perspective. of the 23 songs written for
the album in the fall of 2006, eight were scrapped. The surviving
15 gel into a
meticulously crafted, 30-or-so minutes of dizzying, alt-rock brain food.
A suitable label wasn't swiftly found, so the self-titled CD, featuring
trumpet cameos by Brian Rutledge, gets a DIY release in April.
As
rigorous as all that sounds, the band is hesitant to pat itself on the
back for its work ethic. "I
almost feel like we should be more productive," said Marrett, who
also
plays in hallelujah
the hills. "Eric's got skills recording and we've got all this
recording s--- at our house. If you've got an idea, why not just record
it? Glue the packages together, put stickers on and voila! EP."
There seems to be a vague consensus by Ketman that the new album
is its most
pop-influenced
effort, though there is little consensus as to what pop means.
"I
consider anything with a harmony to be pop," Mora said.
"Anything else is punk."
Penna
may have summarized Ketman's music better than anyone while talking
about something else
entirely. "Joe and I can, like, talk in colors," he said,
describing their songwriting collaborations. "I'll say, 'hey, man,
I'm thinking coconuts, dancing, circuses, 1874 freakshow.' And he's
like, 'yeah, yeah. Exactly.'"
Right.
The Metro
1-04-08; Loco for local;
Our writers on their fave regional discs
Ketman
"Golden Fiction"
Between albums, this Boston trio released a concept EP that plays like a
classic piece of noir pulp and contains one of the best songs of the
year in "Bulletproof Molly."
Jeff Breeze
The Boston
Phoenix 1-26-07; excerpt from: Local Rock Plows Ahead:
Winter offerings you won’t have to shovel by Michael Brodeur
Over
the past year, KETMAN have taken a knack for aggressive
innovation, an odd fascination with Esperanto, a love of Czeslaw Milosz,
and a staunch refusal to suck, and forged them all into what could be
Boston’s most exciting power trio. At times, the songs on their
forthcoming homonymous full-length evince the meticulous roar of DC
bands like Fugazi or maybe even Kerosene 454; elsewhere, Ketman
unleashes the succinct ferocity of West Coasters like the Minutemen and
No Knife. On January 10 at Great Scott, they play with PET
GENIUS, CODETTA, and the phenomenal (and
recently reunited) DISAPPEARER. The album won’t be
out till at least April, but if you’re looking for an album to look
forward to, this is it.
The Boston
Phoenix On The Dowload: MP3 of the week: Ketman; 6-14-06
by Carly Carioli
Fresh off a
triumphant week-and-a-half tour of the West Coast, Allston art-punk
power trio KETMAN are at Great Scott
tomorrow night (Thursday, June 15) to celebrate the release of
their new limited-run Esperanto EP, which they recorded on
four-track cassette in their basement. In the DIY spirit of the
recording, the album comes on spray-painted
mini CDs stuffed in super-nifty homemade packaging.
The music itself is a tasty guitar-driven goulash of Jimi-like wah-wah
and whammy-bar voodoo, In Utero–inspired guitar noise, atonal
shouts, overdriven bass, psychotic percussion outbursts, and -- way
back, way back -- a hint of krautrock pulse. The track we’ve been
digging most, "Hide Out from the Sun," is an
uncharacteristically melodic stomper cut with snatches of swamp-rock
sludge. Use it to get your ass off the couch and down to Allston tonight
for their gig with Shore Leave, Appomattox (speaking of which: dude, how
fucking good are those dudes?!)
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Weekly Dig 7-15-06:
Boston Metro 5-3-06:
Boston Globe 5-17-06:
Boston Phoenix 5-3-06:
The Noise 2/06:
Smother.net 12/28/05:
Quirky indie pop-rock that isn’t afraid to stray far into the territory of avant garde with their guitars held high above their heads. It’s as if they’re ready to strike a discordant note at any time, Mission to Burma be damned to hell. Also they’re a bit frantic on the percussion side, with the drummer preferring crank to more clean street speed. But this isn’t your Pabst Blue Ribbon swilling rock-n-roll—this is indie rock that’s set out on a journey of self discovery amid a notion that each song should be an adventure and offer challenging courses in intelligent and mathematically precise hard rock. Crafty!
- J-Sin
WHAT’S UP MAGAZINE
12/05:
KETMAN
– Dobrze
There's a joke that goes: Sonic
Youth, Weezer, The Foo Fighters and Beck all walked into a bar and
ordered a beer. The bartender says back "You mean a Ketman"?
OK, so that's not funny at all, and well, Ketman ain't no joke, they are
serious indy rockers, taking nods from above musicians and making some
pretty damn good rock and roll. Its dissonant enough to give it artistic
street cred and melodic enough to be considered pop. "Catch a
Fly" and "The Queen of Darts" are my favorites but
"Cold Bitch" is also a strong song, 2 shades away from being a
Lamont song, and that's a good thing. Bet they're killer live.
www.ketman.net
-Kier
Bynres
Student
Underground 2/06:
The
Noise 11-05:
Northeast
Performer 1/06:
Boston Phoenix
10-5-05:
Weekly Dig:
Copper Press 4/06:
Gotta
love it when a group of lads from the great state of Massachusetts
take the time to give a shout out to the Polish language
("dobrze" is like saying "good," as in
"things are good"). Anyway, it's also nice to see someone
having a little fun turning indie rock around. Gone, at last, it
seems, are the days of noisy riffs and I'm-pitching-an-almighty-fit
screams. Instead, we have unusual, sometimes dissonant vocals over
waves of dreamy guitar lines that call to mind the alternative rock
flooding the airwaves in the early '90s as well as vintage stuff along
the lines of what Grant, Bob and Greg used to get up to in
you-know-what. There's only seven songs here and that's precisely
enough, given the unsettling nature of the riffs and rock found
throughout. "Taciturn" and "Cold Bitch" will be
part of at least a half dozen mix tapes I make this year and Dobrze
among the records I drop into conversation whenever someone asks me
what's worthwhile that's new. Check it. – Jedd Beaudoin (2006, The
Daily Copper)"
Metronome
Magazine 12-05:
NEW YORK POST 4-05:
SHOW REVIEWS:
from THE NOISE 10/05 review from Great Scott
August 22nd 2005
My third time seeing Ketman, and the first time at a place with really great sound. To my surprise, there’s some really good singing going on. The guitarist sings in a warm, furry voice on some songs, kind of surprisingly tuneful and lovely, while spewing squalls of noisy guitar, heavy on the twang bar action. On the other songs, the bassist shouts, more punky and urgent. The few that they “harmonize” on are weird and interesting. The bass lines are solid and the drummer is fantastic, loud and fast, complicated, and interesting.
from THE NOISE 9/05 review from O'Brien's
August 11 2005
I saw Ketman once before, and I remember being frustrated by the mix. Tonight it’s really, really good, and I can hear everything clearly. I think they also have a new drummer, and she’s pretty good; a bit of trouble on the most complicated patterns, but she’s ambitious and solid through a profusion of turn-on-a-dime tempo changes that keep things lively and interesting. The songs are fast, punky numbers with an early-Nirvana sort of cheerful snarl to them. Not a lot of vocal melody---the bassist in particular mostly just screams the songs that he sings lead on---but there are a few tuneful bits, and mostly I’m focused on the guitar lines, which are noisy and surprising and excellent. There’s a fantastic, dysphoric pitch rolloff effect that he gets from the whammy bar, which he uses sparingly and very well.
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