I, Octopus

I, Octopus and Metronome the City, two experimental rock bands from New Orleans, have literally 'split' this new CD, each band featured on one 20+ minute track that fuses prog rock, jam, and lots of psychedelia.
First up here are I, Octopus, whose rambling 25-minute affair "Craig Has a Beard Now" is a supercharged instrumental track with plenty of lengthy guitar and keyboard explorations, somewhat reminiscent of early Pink Floyd, as well as bands like Tortoise, Porcupine Tree, Ozric Tentacles, and Mogwai.
Comprised of Blake Lewis (guitars, keyboards), Michael Lentz (guitars, keyboards, theremin) and J. Steigner (drums), this trio creates wild soundscapes and interstellar explorations on this tune, sure to please fans of space rock and the late 60's/early 70's psychedelic movement.
Over on the flip side, Metronome the City offer up dark, ominous sounds on their little medley, less jammy than what their cohorts have put together, more like a cascade of creepy sounds and apocalyptic post rock noodling, complete with plenty of effects laden guitar work, rumbling bass grooves, and creative rhythms. At some point, late in the piece, the bands also conjures up images of Umma Gumma era Pink Floyd, but overall this falls in line with what their New Orleans partners also put together, some serious head music for all the bong lovers out there. - Sea of Tranquility.Org by: Pete Pardo

I, Octopus (www.myspace.com/ioctopus) is an instrumental jazz band from the Crescent City. Having gigged at numerous clubs around the city, the band is now creating a buzz locally, and hope to build upon this recognition with the release of a new album Craig Has a Beard Now. The lineup consists of Michael Lentz, Blake Lewis and Jay Steigner. Where Y’at Magazine recently sat down with members from I, Octopus, to discuss the band’s latest endeavors.

WYAT: What do you think about REM playing at Voodoo Fest this year?
Michael: Pretty cool.

WYAT: What does I, Octopus mean?
Michael: I was at a show at the Dragon’s Den one time and I had seen a “Fight the Stoopids” sticker there and I thought I was reading “I, Octopus.”

WYAT: Dyslexic?
I just thought it would be a cool name for a band.

WYAT: Okay, so “Fight the Stoopids” became “I, Octopus” and the rest is history. What year was the band formed?
Michael: It’s been in a lot of different forms. It was just Blake and me for 2-3 years after we had started in 2001. Then we had Matt Aguiliuz from A Living Soundtrack playing drums with us for a while. He then moved, and we’ve been playing with Jay since 2005, before Katrina.

WYAT: What are the influences of the band?
Michael: Cool. Easy.

WYAT: Like Dokken?
(Everyone laughs)
Jay: All kinds of stuff, not just music. Our sound varies a lot. It will be heavy for a little bit, and then it will be real soft. We’re, like, real dynamic.

WYAT: That being said, there’s no vocals?
Michael: That’s right. No vocals

WYAT: And three people in the band?
Michael: We’ve had various people in the band. We’ve had four people, but we’ve discovered when we only have three we get to go off a little more. Sometimes we have two guitars, and sometimes we have a guitar and a bass. We have a song with a keyboard. We all play all instruments.

WYAT: That’s a perfect segue into the New Orleans scene. What do you think of the New Orleans scene? How do you guys fit into it?
Jay: It’s a cool scene. It’s wide open. We’re able to try to do our own thing and experience what else is going on.

WYAT: Would you say local bands are breaking out of the New Orleans scene? Can these bands tour nationally?
Michael: They can if they want to.

WYAT: Can you make money doing it?
Jay: I think, like any other band trying to do it, there are going to be periods where you don’t. You gotta keep doing it, and eventually you’ll make money.

WYAT: I think getting exposure outside of New Orleans is important. Is this important to you-all?
Michael: Yeah, it’s somewhat important. After all, I’m a musician. It would be really cool if someone wanted to pay me to play.

WYAT: The goal should be to earn a living?
Michael and Jay: Yeah. Speaking from experience, and I haven’t tried to make it anywhere else, but I feel people from other cities seem to have more resources to go on the road, while bands here tend to stick around a little more.

WYAT: Tell me about your affiliation with the Loyola program.
Jay: We all went to Loyola. I was in the music program and Mike was in Music Business.

WYAT: We all agree it’s a cool thing to play gigs locally, but can you make a living playing here in New Orleans? What is the larger vision? Sign with an indie label? Record with a good producer?
Michael: I don’t think any band makes a lot of money just playing in the same city. In New Orleans, jazz and funk seem to be more popular, but I imagine the challenges of the music industry are the same everywhere.

WYAT: And the larger vision?
Jay: I want to incorporate more instruments into the band.
Michael: We’re putting out a new album on September 20th called Craig Has a Beard Now, and then we’re going to tour to support it.
Jay: It’s a split with Metronome the City. Both bands will have a 25-minute long track.
Michael: We cut ours up into five pieces, so you can skip through it if you want to.
Jay: While we were trying to record some other stuff, it ended up being our demo. We were just jamming while it was recording, and it ended up being a 25-minute song. We really liked it, went back and mixed it, and then edited just a little bit.

Metronome the City took a bunch of their recordings and jams that they did, cut out a few little parts, and then pasted it all together.
The record release will be at One-Eyed Jack’s (www.oneeyedjacks.net) on September 20th. A Living Soundtrack will be opening up and Metronome the City will be playing, too.

by: John Dean Alfone - Where Y'at Magazine by: John Dean Alfone

Our ongoing spotlight on new music in New Orleans this week illuminates a strangely unlit place: the dark, experimental rock of I, Octopus.
The four-piece outfit gigs constantly, has been around for years and seems incapable of writing a bad song. Yet it remains among the more obscure groups in the city. Why? These inspired instrumental head trips wouldn't seem such a steep hill to climb for a region weaned on jam bands, free jazz and circuitous zydeco.

"428," from Helping Others Help Themselves

A finely sewn tapestry of guitar texture, the intensity building via subtle changes in decibel levels to a salve-like bridge that brings together a murky-as-the-Mississippi intro, a sinister midsection and a moonwalking finale. Wonderfully moody and mysterious.

by: Noah Bonaparte Pais - Blog of New Orleans.Com by: Noah Bonaparte Pais

I, Octopus creates instrumental madness
By Travis Leeper

"The Magpies Will Eat Your Ears Out if You Don't Stop Masturbating."
This is an actual track from I, Octopus, a New Orleans-based instrumental rock trio; and yes, the rest of their music is just as jarring and bizarre. But don't run from the beast just yet - I, Octopus delivers some of the strangest and energetic instrumental music in Louisiana.

I, Octopus is the collection of Michael Lentz, Blake Lewis, and Jay Steigner, all who take equal roles on guitar, keyboard, and bass. Lentz contributes Theremin sounds, while Steigner works drums. However, in addition to the trio, I, Octopus regularly features local guest musicians, such as Brandon Bunch with synthesizers, Dan Oestreicher and John Ayers on sax, and flautist Janna Saslaw.
And with so many different sounds writhing around, I, Octopus's music is in a constant state of change and evolution. Their recent release, I'd Rather Be a Lightning Rod Than a Seismograph, is built upon sudden shifts in dynamics and style, digressing into both chaos and structured, jazzy jams.
Tracks like "Exponential Flatland Theorem" lay sleazy saxophone upon metal guitar sensibilities, while "Human Tornado" grows slowly to a frantic flailing of guitar and drum sounds, only to fade into a lounge-style jazz romp that disappears as quickly as it came.

"Recording 'I'd Rather Be a Lightning Rod Than a Seismograph' was a lot of fun," said Steigner during an interview with Tiger Weekly. "We wanted to be able to add in all the little extra sounds they we can't do live because we are only three people. We usually write the songs together and we just try different ideas out until we find one we like. I guess sometimes we like to put in sudden shifts that hopefully keep the listener interested by changing direction suddenly."
But the album's strangeness doesn't stop with bizarre sounds and shifts. Titles like "Rag Tag Bunch of Apostrophes" and the aforementioned Magpies and Masturbation title show the group's silly side.
"You have a lot of freedom with titles since there are no lyrics involved," said Steigner. "One of us will hear something funny or clever or see something silly written on a bathroom stall and that can be a title."

"One of our biggest influences is comedy," he continued. "I think that's another reason why we come up with the silly song titles and have crazy sudden shifts in our music because we think it's funny. We don't like to take things too seriously especially music."

If you caught I, Octopus's CD release party at the Spanish Moon recently, then you already know of their performance madness. But for those who haven't, let it be known: I, Octopus isn't just some insincere, random posse of rockers. Living off the energy of a live crowd, the group has focused its music and performance on excitement, complete with visual projections and monstrous energy.
"We like to think of our music as trying to do something fresh and new but still containing elements of all the music we love. There's so much bland music out there that sounds like everything else and we want people to realize that music doesn't have to be that way."

I, Octopus is currently scheduled for an October 24 show at the Hi-Ho Lounge in New Orleans to promote I'd Rather Be a Lightning Rod than a Seismograph. - Tiger Weekly

I’D RATHER BE A LIGHTNING
ROD THAN A SEISMOGRAPH
(INDEPENDENT)

If outer space and and our Lynch-ian subconscious are the domain of bands like Metronome the City and A Living Soundtrack, then the murky depths of the sea belong (naturally) to I, Octopus, one of New Orleans’ premiere prog/jam rock bands. More gritty and organic than their contemporaries, I, Octopus’ first full-length, I’d Rather be a Lightning Rod Than a Seismograph, is the most fully realized version of this ever-evolving band to date, showing a maturity and restraint amidst so many possibilities. It’s as if all those tentacles have stopped flailing about wildly and gained a firm grasp of the dark and hazy terrain. Keyboards, synthesizers and saxophones all snake their way in and around the already heavily-affected, instrumental jams but without ever becoming overbearing, feeling as natural to the song as coral growing up from the sea floor. (It’s also like being just high enough to achieve some kind of next-plane consciousness without pushing it into the straight up giggle fits.) Helped along by excellent production and a straightforward rhythm section, I’d Rather Be... never lingers too long on any one phrase and also borrows from the irreverence and energy of the band’s alter-ego, White Colla Crimes, making it less hard to imagine that both bands share the same core members. An album release show for the album is scheduled for October 24th at the Hi Ho Lounge, wetsuit optional. —Dan Fox - Antigravity Magazine

Much in the guise of Explosions in the Sky and Metronome the City, I, Octopus is an all-instrumental rock outfit originally founded at Loyola University and forced into hiatus following Katrina. Now having re-formed, this experimental band is not afraid to pull out the theremin during experimental jams.

-John Alfone - Where Y'at Magazine by John Alfone

Local instrumental band I, Octopus played abrasive and spacey rock at Twiropa Thursday night. Grating noise was manifested when Michael Lentz and Blake Lewis played battling guitars. Lentz put an epilectic hand over his strings while Lewis played notes that were enjoyable yet disturbing. There wasn't one particular emotion that went with their music. Some were apocalyptic, and some were soothing.

Smoky, circular songs appeared when Lewis switched to bass. Lewis and Lentz played repetive lines while electric pianist Scott McManus added psychedelia with some airy sounds. This groovy type was fed by drummer Matt Aguiluz's syncopated beats. Most of the songs were in a strange rock meter, mostly 3/4. Aguiluz was on time, but his accents seemed stilted or forced. The music would have been better served if he had added variety to his rhythms.

The music was intelligent, and it rocked out often. The thin crowd applauded a lot, but they didn't get close to the stage. C'mon people. We gotta get down before we die.

Lentz was the most energetic member of the group. He had to bump into Lewis during the last song in order to get Lewis smiling and into the music. It's important for the band to seem like they enjoy the music. Show us something. Lentz used a voice box. That was Frampton fun.

McManus was possibly the most indifferent onstage band member I've seen. He was funny. He ran off the stage in the middle of a song to get a drink, he checked his cell phone during one song, and he held his drink in one hand while he played the synth with the other. - LiveNewOrleans.com by: Jason Songe

Crack your knuckles for this one. STATS from Brooklyn, New York play a very Yes-influenced style of prog-rock, so maybe you can pretend to be Vincent Gallo about to wreck a strip joint while they're playing.
I, Octopus is a few BPM's slower but still brings out the air-guitar in you, especially with such sonic circus anthems like "One Trick Horse." Plus, one of the guitarists looks like Napoleon Bonaparte a little bit and somehow that's very fitting to the mystical journey that is this line-up. - Dan Fox / AntiGravity - AntiGravity Magazine by: Dan Fox

Saturday, September 27, 2008

I, Octopus & Metronome the City - Split CD

What I have here today is an interesting self-released split CD between two impressive New Orleans based instrumental/experimental bands, I, Octopus and Metronome the City. Each band has contributed one track on the release that clock in at just roughly over twenty minutes each.

The first track “Craig Has a Beard Now” is from the trio of Blake Lewis (guitar/keyboards), Michael Lentz (guitars/keyboards), and J. Steigner (drums) that is I, Octopus. The track almost immediately establishes itself with a bit of a spacey/psych vibe but with the added emphasis on keyboard and electronics there is a bit more “noise” to deal with here than one might expect. The tune rises and falls many times throughout its lengthy course, and during the slower/quieter parts is where a lot of the more interesting experimental aspects of the band take place in my opinion with various ambient noises peaking out from the haze before the band works into a larger guitar filled sound. While not the every day classic pysch/space worship band, I think I, Octopus should find plenty among that circle regardless.

Metronome the City, while a band of similar nature, takes a bit of a different approach for their contribution to the disc. Their track, which is evidently untitled according to the sleeve of the CD, is seemingly a collection of recorded jams that have been edited together to make one long full length track. For the most part this works out fairly well and at one point after three minutes has a pretty startling effect when the soothing mathy plucking of guitar simply drops out in favor of a much more ominous combination of guitar and lurching low-end that creeps in out of the echoing guitar lines. The band continues on with this sort of approach for a good portion of the track; however it’s hard to not be taken in by the bands cavernous and distant sounding guitars. It’s deceptive in its prettiness that keeps the listener hanging on for duration of the medley. - Jonathan @ Built On a Weak Spot.Com