LESS PAIN FOREVER

Less Pain Forever gear up for eventual world domination
2006-07-05
jb
Less Pain Forever is one of the best local bands I’ve ever seen. So good in fact that I was sure they would transcend the local market and find success on a larger scale. They had a lot of momentum in the early 2000s and were musical progenitors in numerous ways.

First of all, they are essentially a guitar and drums duo, and they were doing it before almost anyone else in the indie/alternative arena. Singer/guitarist James Karnes has a specially rigged setup that allows him to play bass and lead guitar parts at the same time, and Christopher Pomerenke plays keyboards while drumming and singing. And, they wear matching outfits and cop glasses, and have a scary musical psychic bond.

Before I go any further, in the interest of full disclosure, I’ve known these guys for some time and we were really tight for a number of years. When they were first coming up and getting a local buzz I elected not to write about them because of my friendship with them, as well as my perhaps not totally objective love of the music they produced.

But times change, people move away and friendships change. I still consider the boys to be my friends but I don’t see much of them these days. I feel OK writing about them here and in this way since this is technically a blog and should have some personal content.

In my original draft there was a small flashback section about the origins of the band and their eventual rise as a premier local band. When they opened for touring bands they would very often stun them. When they opened for Starlight Mints, Alan Vest went and woke up his sleeping bandmates so they could watch the Les Payne Product do what they do.

I am not going to go into the many, many name changes or highlights of shows in Arizona, but it was clear that they were at the top of their game and needed to play outside of the state.

When they loaded up their black RV in 2001 and gave up permanent residences in Phoenix, it seemed like it was going to happen for the boys. My feeling at the time was that if it didn’t they would join the unfortunate ranks of brilliant bands that influenced other musicians but failed to find a wide audience.

They toured the country and played some pretty high profile clubs in New York, LA and many other places, and audiences were receptive.

Things were going well and Les Payne was sleeping in the black RV in Wal-Mart parking lots and living the dream, if your dream is to live in a black RV and sleep in Wal-Mart parking lots. They were getting great responses from crowds and fellow musicians alike, but for whatever reason their touring didn’t generate a music deal.

I honestly think this had something to do with the recorded stuff they were selling at shows and sending to labels and well placed music folk. While they had some good recordings, their creative home recordings came at the time right before decent software and recording equipment was within the grasp of normal people.

I truly feel that if they had even a three-song, professionally-recorded product to shop around that accurately represented their live sound they would be well known today. I also think in my more conspiratorial moments that when Less Pain was seen by music people in metropolitan cities they inspired or at least had something to do with the duo trend in indie rock, as well as matching or complimentary outfits a la the White Stripes.

OK, I didn’t mean to give you a huge history lesson about Less Pain Forever but it was somewhat necessary to bring you to the present, five years after their U.S. tour. Karnes lives in New Hope, Penn., and Pomerenke lives, apparently depending on the position of Orion, either on various couches in downtown Phoenix, Apache Junction or Mexico.

This obviously makes touring and writing music difficult, and the band was playing very seldom and things didn’t seem like forever for Less Pain. That is until recently when they actually finished a full-length album with Sonic Youth’s producer in Sonic Youth’s studio. And they are coming to Arizona to do a small tour of Arizona and California in early July, as well as recording a split album with Peachcake. This album, featuring five songs by Peachcake and five songs by Less Pain Forever will be released in conjunction with a U.S. tour with Peachcake that should also coincide with the release of the full length. This is scheduled to get under way in September.

This is all kind of remarkable if you consider all the stuff these guys have been through and feels to me like a legitimate return to contention. Now with not one, but two well made products and touring with a band that draws huge crowds of the same kind of people that dig Less Pain, I can see the stars aligning for the boys.

If you can’t get enough of the Less Pain history stuff I will write another story when the big tour happens, but for now let me get out of the way and bring - AZNightBuzz

Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Club Congress
LESS PAIN FOREVER!!!, Colorstore, Minibosses, Treasure Mammal


This is THE best that Phoenix has to offer. If you don’t have a sense of humor, don’t go to this show. Or, if you don’t, you may pick one up here by accident.

Less Pain Forever play crunchy, call-and-response, dancable rock that's sort of like a heavy They Might Be Giants with the Pixies' Frank Black egging on the two Johns. Orrr...like a polished Pork Torta produced by Mates of State. And the better Presidents of United States of America songs. Admit it, you still sing along to "Peaches" when they play it on 90's Flashback.

Although they sound great on CD, they're a must-see live. Fucking hilarious. On the final day of last year's Club Congress 20th, I had full-on strep throat with a fever of 102 degrees and waited around several hours for them to finally go on. It was well worth it.

Colorstore will appeal to fans of the lighter, more upbeat Radiohead and Rogue Wave songs, with an emphasis on the electric piano (Fender Rhodes). El Ten Eleven fans will also appreciate. Though they don't sound anything like her, Colorstore often backs up Lonna Kelley, learning new songs on a moment's notice. Just in case you were eyeing one of her male band mates at a recent Kelley show.

The Minibosses shred metal versions of old-school Nintendo games. I shit you not. I wrote a review of their show for Crimewave magazine, detailing their feverish following. Kids would actually bring joysticks and plastic guns to their shows. I'll try to dig it up for ya'all.

Treasure Mammal perform noise-dance-punk with lots of distorted vocals and video game sound effects. Will appeal to fans of The Rapture or those who like slower Blood Brothers songs. Check out their website, they've got a bunch of songs streaming. (Proper link now!)

[photos]
Less Pain Forever at the Club Congress 20th Anniversary last year.

[photos]
Yes, that's right, LPF's drummer also sings and plays keyboards at the same time. What else does your drummer do? Light another smoke?

http://www.tusconscene.com/node/173 - TUSCON SCENE

by Serene Dominic

Dynamic duo Less Pain Forever are packing up the RV and heading out of the Valley for good.Some say that it really isn't happening, that Less Pain Forever (a.k.a. Lush Budget Presents the Les Payne Product) isn't really leaving Arizona, that all this talk about the duo living, recording and touring for perpetuity in a 1983 Chevrolet Southwind RV is just the latest in a series of stunts devised to dupe the more gullible members of the local press. Some even think their "final" Valley show this weekend carries no more finality than the countless other "farewell" gigs local bands announce in June so they don't have to sweat a slow club scene during the mind-searing summer months.
Jeez, the Sand Rubies don't have these sort of credibility problems and they've split and regrouped more times than your average amoeba.

But then again, how can you trust two guys who'd form a Wings tribute band and then refuse to learn all of Linda's keyboard parts? And what other group has arranged to have its members kidnapped during a show or traded singers with someone else during a battle of the bands? And who else has initiated more lugubrious name changes than Prince and Cat Stevens combined?

The answer will be apparent in the coming months, when local music fans find there are no more Less Pain or Les Payne shows -- and it's too bad. For as much as group leaders Chris Pomerenke and James Karnes have bewildered and alienated some folks with their antics, they've delighted the rest of us who've tired of seeing bands play the same set lists so people can have the same conversations over them.

If some Valley idiots came away from a Les Payne show feeling cheated, I suggest they don't deserve a band this good.

As a writer who has been duped by these charlatans on numerous occasions (and unwittingly taken part in a stunt or two), I realize everything I write about Less Pain Forever is naturally suspect. But trust me. These guys are really, really leaving. I have seen the "For Lease" sign outside the compound they've called home for the past six years. I've touched the hem of their RV awning and have drunk one of last beers from the refrigerator inside.

Sitting inside the Southwind reminiscing with Pomerenke and Karnes, you realize what an amazing vehicle the Les Payne RV is. Everything inside of it either folds out into a bed or a spice rack. And the duo will need every inch of space they can get to allow room for a public address system and all their computer and recording equipment. In paring down their possessions, Pomerenke and Karnes are parting ways with their beloved 30-inch TV, countless mannequin heads and five 30-gallon trash bags worth of thrift store stage clothes. Pomerenke swears they will only wear silk pajamas from now on.

"We're gonna stroll out of this mini-castle like two Hefs, sipping champagne. No more beer, either. This is the last time you'll see beer in here," he grimaces, pointing to a couple of Coors Light cans.

With only two shows booked as part of their endless tour, the band's impending odyssey starts to sound as unlikely as an Elvis movie plot -- two drifter musicians travel the country in search of places to play and some nice people to help along the way.

Even if their greatest adventure is yet to be written, what's gone before is certainly not chopped liver. For those of you who missed it, we offer the following recap of the best of Les Payne -- and some of the strangest shows ever to be staged in the Valley.

Trunk Federation CD release Party, January 1997, Hollywood Alley

Les Payne Product's first attempt to upstage the headliner included inviting a series of "special guests" onstage. Among those was a one-man band affectionately known as Fuckin' A.

Pomerenke: "He sat behind the drums, played guitar and sang a song about how he had 'rock 'n' roll in his veins.'"

After Fuckin' A's one-song set, Les Payne returned wearing bloodied butcher smocks and carrying congratulatory bouquets for their guest.

This show also marked the first and only appearance of "Sara, the Les Payne Dancer." Ripping off their smocks to reveal homemade Slayer tee shirts, the Payne boys and Sara devil-danced the night away to the strains of evil metal music, much to the chagrin of a perplexed crowd.

Phunk Junkeez CD release party, October 1998, Bash on Ash

The boys exorcised their megalomaniacal demons by hiring personal valets to hold up full-length mirrors so they could check their look onstage during the entire set. Bogus rappers J.T. Nasty and T.C. Classy (Jeff Bufano and Chris Corak from Reuben's Accomplice) also performed a song with the duo.

Pomerenke: "We were white rock-rappers seconds before it stopped being cool."

Mike Watt Show, Mason Jar, April 1998

The night the guys decided to become faith healers -- a transformation which actually brought the crowd to a hush. One unidentified man in a walker came away healed but another gu - Phoenix New Times

Take as needed
By Serene Dominic
Article Published Sep 1, 2005



Hurts so good:One stands, one sits! Both sing, rock and overextend themselves! It's a simple winning concept that every minimalist duo without a bass player has employed to great personal gain, but few have excelled with greater zeal for multi-tasking and whimsy like James Karnes and Chris Pomerenke. The decision to give it another go has been bolstered by friend Ryan Page (Moog, Frontier Life) executive-producing the first-ever Less Pain Forever full-length album, recorded with Sonic Youth engineer Aaron Mullan. With 10 years of material to choose from, dating back to their days as Lush Budget Presents the Les Payne Product, the results could be as all-over-the-map as the band itself. But if there was ever a time for what Karnes calls "Phenomerrock," it's now.

- Phoenix New Times

No Payne, No Gain
Arizona's Les Payne Product feels the burn.
By John La Briola
Article Published Jul 6, 2000




DetailsThe mythical Phoenix flapped its wings so hard it finally burst into flames. Singing a melodious dirge, this ridiculously flighty creature ended up burning to death -- snap, crackle, pop -- before rising up from its ashes happy as a lark. Renewed. Triumphant. Like Jesus with feathers.
As tough an act as that might be to follow, Arizona's sweltering capital now boasts a pair of musical arsonists called Lush Budget Presents the Les Payne Product, whose modest bonfire approach to the indie-festooned school of songcraft might just outshine that majestic birdy -- or cremate the two hucksters in mid-beat. Either way, guitarist James Karnes and drummer/keyboardist Christopher Pomerenke harmonize like hyperventilating choirboys, and as the demon-addled force behind such energized chicanery, they more than ably compensate for their glaring lack of bandmates.

Such a sparse rhythmic configuration recalls rockabilly's Dex and Crow of Chapel Hill's Flat Duo Jets. But by parading playful meter changes and sing-song silliness, LBPTLPP actually has more in common with the earliest two-headed conceptions of Ween or They Might Be Giants. The music is entertaining, crazed and frenetic, and doesn't take itself the least bit seriously. It's also tight as a bull's sphincter and funny as a bowl haircut. Theatrics abound during live sets (including the occasional staged kidnapping, assault by mechanized Gobot or sudden bouncer-enforced removal of the band's nemesis, Decepto), and coordinated outfits are the rule rather than the exception. With a generous nod to Frank Zappa and any of the ear candy produced by the Knack, Les Payne (named after the reigning mayor of Nothing, Arizona) might remind folks of many things -- including half-familiar nursery rhymes, B-movie hooks or Perry Farrell's piercing shriek.

These qualities by no means paint the pranksters into a corner of novelty, mind you, because the skill behind their shtick is as seasoned as it is abundant. Consider an epic ditty from their self-titled debut on Aviator Records called "At the Rodeo (Fireball)" -- a song that's as much rip-snorter as it is lilting ballad, demonstrating an uncanny ability to juggle not only the technical side of tempo, rhythm and speedy scale maneuvers, but the listener's emotions and expectations as well. The amusing lyrics bounce like a rubber ball: "At the rodeo/Uh-oh/There is something in the air/No way/You can't/Pretend that you don't care about a bull named Fireball/It's the rodeo/Flowers in your best girl's hair." It's a big, colorful sound, all right, made all the more impressive by the band's Siamese-twinned lineup.

"Most songwriting teams are actually two guys, anyway, if you think about the good ones," Karnes notes before pointing out the more practical side of the band's arrangement. "There's less backbiting and arguing. The pay gets split two ways, and there's a lot more drink tickets at shows."

"More blow," Pomerenke adds.

"Smoke and mirrors. That's what I tell 'em when they ask where the other guy is," Karnes says.

"More blow," Pomerenke repeats.

"And we can keep the money in the family, so to speak," adds Karnes.

Sharing a house that doubles as a practice space in the middle of a Phoenix ghetto, the members of Les Payne maintain solid footing as certified grunts in the desert's music scene but sense a greater purpose for their seven-year efforts. "It's hard to play in the same town when the whole reason you started a band was to travel," Karnes notes. "I just want to be able to do it without having to sell butt door-to-door. And take it around the world as many times as people will have it. That's really why we got into this racket."

Without the benefit of a record company, booking agent, manager or any European contacts, the two actually have performed abroad -- something born more from a manic case of chutzpah than any overwhelming global response to their now-two-year-old CD. After coordinating a seven-week tour entirely through e-mail and a single Internet site, MP3.com, the sweet Valley duo headlined for a hastily assembled Danish thrash act called Crowded Orifice, yielding some 25 shows in Denmark, Sweden, Germany and the hash-huffing Netherlands. A small van shlepped three puny Yanks, four massive Danes -- "huge guys with stinky feet," Pomerenke notes -- and a trailer full of gear through freezing temperatures at the top speed of 45 mph; as they wound around the continent, the question posed most frequently to this curious collective was simple and direct: What is "orifice"? Oh, when glitz and glamour drop the hammer!

"Before going to Europe, we'd never seen east of America past Denver," Karnes admits, and while the experience granted world-weariness to the desert bumpkins, it also isolated them to an extent from their Phoenix peers. "Lately our attitude - Westword(denver)

Show of the Week?: A pair of hucksters who call themselves Lush Budget Presents the Les Payne Product sent their materials too late for inclusion in the calendar listings, but this odd band from the horrific city of Mesa, Ariz., merits a quick note. The duo's self-titled record is a wild ride through the indie-rock landscape in a Range Rover with tires made from jerky guitars, sarcastic-toned vocals, assured rhythms and weird lyrics. It's probably the only band I've heard that could elicit comparisons to Weezer, Superchunk, Jane's Addiction and Heavy Vegetable in one fell swoop. The pretty mess comes to Berbati's at 8 pm Wednesday, June 17. - Willamette Weekly

NOT FOR THOSE INTO S&M
by Stephen Seigel, Tucson Weekly
Why the hell isn't the Phoenix-area duo Less Pain
Forever already famous? That's the question I asked
upon first seeing them perform about seven years ago,
when they went under the unwieldy but hilarious
moniker Lush Budget Presents the Les Payne Product
(Les Payne being a real-life Arizona resident whose
greatest claim to fame was gracing a calendar put out
by the Phoenix New Times). It's a question I continue
to ask every time I see them perform.

They've taken a rather unpredictable route in the
years since their formation, the most bizarre being
the purchase of an RV, which they utilized as not only
a touring vehicle, but also as a place to call home.
They've had a few scrapes with being discovered, such
as a weekly residency at a highly regarded club in New
York City; they've also broken up at least once along
the way. With the upcoming release of an album
recorded by some industry bigwigs, 2007 may bring fame
for these boys yet.

I Know What It's Like to Want to Dance was recorded at
Sonic Youth's Echo Canyon studio in Manhattan, with
that band's engineer, Aaron Mullan, behind the boards;
it was mixed by Christopher Fudurich (Nada Surf, Jimmy
Eat World); and it was executive produced by Ryan
Page, a Los Angeles-based film and music producer
who's best known for his work on a documentary about
synthesizer pioneer Bob Moog. The album will be
released on Accretions Records in January (though
copies will be for sale at this week's show).

Anyone who's seen Less Pain Forever perform live will
tell you they're unlike anything else out there.
Singer/guitarist James Karnes stands to the left on
the stage, playing a souped-up bass/guitar combo,
while Christopher Pomerenke sits at the center of the
stage, simultaneously playing drums and keyboards
while singing. They usually wear goofy costumes, and
it's hard to take your eyes off of them. Which might
be enough for some acts. And which makes it all the
more remarkable that, as the new album testifies, the
music is just as fantastic.

If you listened to I Know What It's Like without
knowing how it was created, you would be won over by
the songs, which combine the quirky pop of early XTC,
the complex changes of Frank Zappa and the humor of
They Might Be Giants. But on the new album, the humor
serves as a vehicle to express some heavier topics
than the duo usually tackles. The first song, "Throw
Your Babies," for example, opens with a whimsical a
cappella chant that could come from an age-old nursery
rhyme, but turns into a parable of sorts about the
perils of becoming a teenage mom. And it still manages
to be a hella fun tune.

Do yourself a favor and go see the Bloat Holiday Show,
headlined by Less Pain Forever and including
performances by Mr. Free and the Satellite Freakout
and The Bloat Orchestra, on Friday, Dec. 29, at Club
Congress, 311 E. Congress St. The festivities begin at
9 p.m. and will only set you back five bucks. I'll be
the one in the corner muttering, "See, I told you so."
Call 622-8848 for further details. - Tuscon Weekly

Less Pain Forever Has Its Brains And Eats Them Too. by Niki D'Andrea. Music Editor Phoenix New Times.

The babies were wearing scuba gear, and levitating above all the houses in the neighborhood.

And when Christopher Pomerenke woke up, he wrote a song about the surreal scene from his subconscious, called "Throw Your Babies." The tune serves as the leadoff track for I Know What It's Like to Want to Dance (Accretions), the latest sonic offering from intellectual oddballs Less Pain Forever.

"I drink so much that my dreams are just gone now," says Pomerenke, who serves as one-half of Less Pain Forever (his bandmate, James Karnes, lives in Pennsylvania). "But back in the day, when I was sober, I was a 'rent boy' — I used to have sex with men just to pay the rent and stuff. And I used to have crazy dreams, and I had this dream that all these moms were throwing their babies up, and one of them got stuck behind the moon."

"Throw Your Babies" is filled with poppy dance beats, quirky synthesizers, and cadence-be-damned vocals, but Pomerenke points out that there's a depth to what seems inane.

"Basically, all the moms were kind of releasing their child for possible greatness. It's the idea of single moms and their struggles, and [how] they all have hopes that their children will be miracle babies," he says. "We like to write songs that deal with surreal things, but are anchored in something kind of normal and kinda boring."

To hear Pomerenke use the words "normal" and "boring" in even an indirect reference to Less Pain Forever is ironic, because the band's story is as gutter-fabulous as that of any early '80s L.A. metal band, and their music is as indefinable as a hypothetical jam session between Frank Zappa, Ween, and Beck on better drugs.

The roots of LPF started in 1991 at the Arizona Biltmore, where Pomerenke and Karnes were both busboys.

The two went to a house party one night and jammed together, and that was it. They started playing around town as Lush Budget Presents the Les Payne Product, a moniker inspired both by the former mayor of Nothing, Arizona (named Les Payne), and the idea that what they were doing was "a combination of art and commerce."

After forming Lush Budget Presents the Les Payne Product, Pomerenke and Karnes rented a condemned house across the street from the Rhythm Room on Indian School Road.

"It didn't have windows, cooling, or heating," Pomerenke says. "It didn't have a water heater. We had to use buckets from the sink to pour water in the toilet; that's the only way it would work. We lived there for, like, five years. Less Pain got born and raised there in that weird little ghetto."

Sometime in the late '90s, Pomerenke and Karnes decided they were going to quit making music, get an RV, and just travel. But they re-formed in 2001 as a tribute band — to itself.

"We felt like we'd reached the pinnacle of genius, and maybe we should take it to the next level, which would be quitting," Pomerenke says. "So we quit, but then we thought, 'Not enough people have heard of us yet, so we can't quit. So let's be a tribute band to ourselves,' so basically we can preach our own word without sounding arrogant."

After re-forming as Less Pain Forever — named after both something everyone would like to have and their former Les Payne incarnation — the duo shared the stage with acts like Modest Mouse, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Deerhoof, Frank Black, and Ween, and toured Europe in 2000 and 2002.

But Pomerenke and Karnes had pretty much hung up their party hats again by the time local producer and filmmaker Ryan Page (Moog, Frontier Life) approached them with an offer they couldn't refuse. Page said he could get the band into Echo Canyon, Sonic Youth's Manhattan studios, if they'd record an album with Sonic Youth's engineer, Aaron Mullen. LPF said yes, and rushed off to record I Know What It's Like to Want to Dance in four days.

"Sonic Youth's studio is this really awesome loft that's right near where the trade centers were at on Murray Street, and we used all of their [Sonic Youth's] equipment," Pomerenke says. "It was a real honor. Super awesome."

The album itself is "super awesome" as well, deceptively swollen with sounds that could resemble the output of an army. But Pomerenke and Karnes play all of the instruments themselves — even live, when Karnes sings and plays a double guitar/bass contraption and Pomerenke sings and plays a homemade drums/keyboard hybrid. The sounds range from the whimsical, digitized country punk swagger of "Illuminati Stormhorse" to the fuzzy, funky pop boogie of "Absolut & Redbulls" to the lolling, melancholy indie rock ballad "Seems Like a Good Kid," which describes a "weirdo" kid in a torn tee shirt that reads "Kill 'Em All" and asks the question, "What if all the fuckers finally fucked off and left you alone?"

Pomerenke adores that line, but he didn't write the song. Karnes did; it's about one of his neighbors. "His neighbor is mayb - Phoenix New Times