Oui Bandits
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Oui Bandits

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"It's Oui, not Wee."

story by Tim McMahan

Interviewing local indie band Oui Bandits was one of the tougher assignments I’ve drawn in a while.

Not because they’re a bunch of insufferable pricks. On the contrary, the four-piece that consists of Robert M. Davis and Patrick Mainelli on guitars and vocals (sort of the Simon & Garfunkel of the band) and new members Aaron Detter on bass and Jeff Koster on drums, couldn’t be more affable and funny as they talked about their music over large bottles of Red Stripe at Jake’s last Saturday afternoon.

No, the problem was that they didn’t have much to say about the “how” and “what” of their debut, Mattress in the Afternoon. “So what music influenced your songwriting?” I would rather not say, Davis replied. “OK, how about the lyrics, what was going on there?” I really don’t want to go into that…

At the end of the day, the band preferred that the album speak for itself, which it does rather fluently, elegantly and at its best moments, in perfect harmony.

Available on vinyl only (a DVR [sic] is included with every purchase), Mattress in the Afternoon could have been tossed aside as just another run-of-the-mill low-fi indie folk collection if it weren’t for the songwriting, which has as much to do with old-school stuff like Simon and Garfunkel as new stuff by The Shins and Okkervil River. Then there are the multi-layered harmonies on tracks like “The Last Thing I Remember” and “North 40th St.,” which give the album a nostalgic, pop-'60s vibe.

There is a handmade charm to Mattress…, probably because it was recorded mostly in Mainelli’s former 40th and California apartment/studio using a Mackie 8-track monitor. Three songs were recorded at Bassline Studios by Kyle Petersen, though other than the drum parts, you can't tell the difference (thanks to Doug Van Sloun’s mastering).

The short story behind the band's origin is that Davis and Mainelli have played together in bands off and on since 2000. This latest version – whose name was once misinterpreted on a showbill as The Wee Bandits – formed shortly after Davis moved back from San Francisco in the summer of ’06. Their first gig as a duo was a benefit for a women’s self-defense class in January ’07.

“We played a few shows, and it was awkward and uncomfortable,” Davis said. “It’s hard to play this music as a two-piece.” So along came Detter, who Davis has known longer than anyone in the band, and Koster, formerly a member of Son Ambulance.

The debut features only Davis and Mainelli, who made the album over the past year. “These songs were written and recorded simultaneously,” Mainelli said. “It was an interesting experiment that we don’t need to do again.”

Sometimes the collaboration could be rather minimal. Take the song “String,” for example. “Bob said, ‘I’ll play it for you and we’ll record it and you can figure out what to do with it,’” Mainelli said. “So while he was playing I was folding laundry and walking around opening and closing doors and hitting stuff. That recording ended up being on the record.”

“It’s more fun recording songs like that than in a studio,” Davis said. “I liked recording in the studio, but there’s these time constraints and it’s expensive. If I went to take a crap, I figured that I just wasted $30 because I wasn’t recording.”

Mattress… also is the vinyl debut for the label releasing it. I’m Drinking This Records is known as a cassette-only label whose releases include cassettes by Flamboyant Gods, Flowers Forever, Capgun Coup and Talking Mountain.

And though the label's logo appears on the sleeve, it was the band that actually paid for the 250-run vinyl pressing that sports the I’m Drinking This catalog number IDT001. “It’s a good label with lots of good bands on it,” Davis said. “We’re all friends. So while we don’t run the label, we feel like we have as much at stake in it as they do. We want to see it succeed.” - The Reader / lazy-i.com


"Oui Bandits make music, lies and creative truths"

story by Lindsay Trapnell

Maybe it’s the use of French in their name, but the members of Oui Bandits come across as a cultured bunch. With two English majors, a French major, and a Film/Fine Arts major, they would have a fair shot at Band Jeopardy if it existed.

And while I’m sure Blue Line has had its fair share of sophisticated coffeehouse conversations within its walls, the informal band interview does not often run the gamut from Cassavetes to the recycling movement (the book Cradle to Cradle was namedropped) to 1960s psychedelic pop to the type of soil that denotes a true bluff (note: not all of these discussion topics have been included in the edited interview).

Brainpower isn’t the only thing the band has going for it. They’ve recently welcomed drummer Jeff Koster (who also plays in Son Ambulance) into the band and they’re on the eve of releasing their first full-length album Mattress in the Afternoon, an infectious collection of well-written pop songs this Saturday at the Slowdown.

Mattress marks the first vinyl release for I’m Drinkin This, the local label known for its embrace of the cassette tape. I’m Drinkin This released Oui Bandits former recording It Was Like That When I Got Here.

It’s a vinyl release show, because as singer/guitarist Robert Davis states, “Vinyl is a lot more romantic than CDs. Records are an active medium; you have to flip it over and stuff.”

How did the band get started?

Bob: The band started as Pat and I. Officially, this incarnation started in the summer of 2006. But we’ve been playing in bands since…

Pat: Bob and I met in high school in 2001.

Bob: Pat came up to me and asked if I had another Nader sticker or button, and I did. I think this was after Nader lost. This band started in 2006 after I moved back from San Francisco.

Pat: Aaron moved back from France and started playing bass, then Jeff moved back from Chicago and a few years later he started playing drums.

Aaron: Bob came up to me when I got back and was like, “Hey, do you think you could learn bass?”

Bob: No, I said, “Do you want to play bass in Oui Bandits?” I worked out the wording very specifically in my head because I thought you were going to say no.

Aaron: I was like, “Sure, I’ll take a shot at it.” So I picked up the bass, they gave me a crash course and we were playing a show at Slowdown in like two weeks.

How did you get the name Oui Bandits?

Bob: This Frenchman came to me in a dream…(Laughter)

Aaron: What was he riding?

Bob: He was riding a flaming cake, and he said, “You are bandits with a yes, and so you shall be.” Since he was French, “yes” was “oui.”

Do you have any interpretations of that dream?

Bob: Nope.

Jeff: The band is becoming the interpretation.

Pat: You’re changing your life around the dream.

Bob: Before that dream I was in law school. I was going to become a lawyer, maybe President someday.

Then the dream changed everything?

Bob: Yep. That damn Frenchman.

Did you ever think about incorporating flaming cakes into your live show?

Bob: We did that a lot in early shows, but then we burned down a house. So we stopped doing that. Plus, buying a cake for every show gets expensive.

Aaron: The headline for this article will be “Oui Bandits make music comma lies.”

Bob: I prefer to think of them as creative truths. I could still run for President.

Can you talk about the new album?

Aaron: The new album is entirely Bob and Pat.

Pat: We’ve been working on it for a while. Most of them we recorded at home.

Bob: A few songs we recorded at Bassline with Kyle Peterson.

Is the album title a reference to the film Meshes in the Afternoon?

Bob: No, but it is a movie reference. I was telling Pat about this German movie Mädchen in der Uniform, that I watched in this film class. It translates to “Girl in Uniform.” I was commenting on how bad the print was, because an hour into the movie, the subtitles just stopped appearing for like 20 minutes at a time, so we were like, “What’s going on in this movie?” And then they came back but they were randomly changing fonts, so I was like, “Man, this person has been talking forever” because I thought it was just one person talking. So I was telling Pat the story of how bad this print was, and he thought the movie was called “Mattress in the Afternoon.”

Are all of you into film?

Aaron: I love film, but Bob’s a pretty big buff. He’s pretty pretentious about it.

Jeff: That’s how I met Bob. We talked about film in an art class.

Bob: We had life drawing together.

Did you do nude drawings together?

Bob: Yeah.

Jeff: He sat right beside me.

Bob: It’s hard to have awkward moments with someone after you’ve stood staring at nude bodies for four hours at a time.

Favorite films or directors?

Jeff: I think Cassavetes.

Bob: I enjoy Cassavetes as well.

Aaron: I’m a real big Christopher Columbus film. (Laughter). He directed Home Alone. He’s basically a director slut, he’ll do whatever people want him to. I like his movies though…he did Mrs. Doubtfire, which is a great movie. He also did the first Harry Potter movie.

Jeff: He’s good at making the first part to a sequel.

Bob: I also like Billy Wilder a lot. I think The Apartment was the last movie I truly loved of his. You don’t really encounter movies from the late 50s, early 60s that have suicide as one of the main themes that is also a comedy.

If you could tour with any band, who would it be?

Pat: The Righteous Brothers. That would be so boss.

Jeff: I think I would want to tour with Ariel Pink.

Pat: That would be pretty weird.

Jeff: They’re kind of the pop rock that I’d like to see more people doing.

Bob: I’d love to tour with Sonic Youth. I think that would be fun, because I love that band. But we sound nothing like them. I just read a music biography on Sonic Youth and there are all these stories of how Thurston Moore is so up on music that a band would release a tape with no press whatsoever and he would find it and buy it. Like a band in San Diego would release a tape and two days later he would own it, even though he lives in New York. So now I feel he’s going to read this interview and be like, “What bands mentioned us this week?” and then they’re going to call us. That’s my dream now. - Omaha City Weekly


"Beep Beep / Oui Bandits / Pharmacy Spirits show review"

Oui Bandits were next and started by launching into two new songs not on their latest album, both of which were better than anything on their latest album (which is pretty darn good, btw). Their new material is more streamlined and straight-forward than the stuff on the record, and since I'm a sucker for a good melody, I loved it.

http://www.timmcmahan.com/2009/03/cursive-on-letterman-tonight-live.html - lazy-i.com


"Oui Bandits LP Release"

Sunday, December 21, 2008, 02:44 PM - Shows
Posted by Andrew
Tonight is the release show for Oui Bandit's debut LP Mattress in the Afternoon. TMac has a pretty great interview with the band right >>here<<, and you can check out some tracks from the record on their myspace. I haven't heard the album yet (I'm a doofus) but I've listened to their earlier tape release a bunch and it's one of my favorite Im Drinkin This releases so far, so I'm excited to hear the record. I work late and I doubt this bill is the type of bands that will last all night, so if I don't drive out to Slowdown tonight I'll pick up a copy downtown next week (or you can order the mp3s at the myspace, too). Also playing is Adam Robert Haug, Jesse Mckelvey, and the Contrails. Show at 9pm, $6, and LPs are $10. Check it out.

http://www.omahype.com/index.php?entry=entry081221-124405 - omahype.com


"Netherfriends/Talking Mountain/Oui Bandits@ PS Collective"

Tonight brings a couple sweet events, firstly the best show of 2009 is happening at the PS Collective. It will feature some cool local bands and some super sweet local favorites from out of town. Netherfriends are headlining, a favorite from Chicago. If you haven't seen them, I really think you should, they'll be pots and pans and nudies and all kinds of things. Talking Mountain is of course one of our favorite Omaha bands, mask wearing and lovable. White Elephant Gift Exchange another Omaha favorite, she's only in town a few times a year so take advantage. Oui Bandits have a new LP out that you should buy, it came out in 2008 but we're gonna make sure it qualifies for our 2009 lists. It's great.

http://www.omahype.com/index.php?entry=entry090105-145252 - omahype.com


Discography

it was like that when i got here - tape ep, released December, 2007
Mattress in the Afternoon - LP, release date: December, 2008

Photos

Bio

Oui Bandits first happened in the summer of 2006. Robert and Patrick had been playing together in bands since they first met in the fall of 2000. Agreeing that the world was a better place without said bands, Robert left Nebraska and Patrick went to college. After a year and a half in San Francisco, Robert moved back to Omaha with new songs and a new haircut. Patrick loved the haircut and tolerated the songs.... Oui Bandits was born! The two practiced in the attic of Patrick's mid-town apartment, and played their first show in January, 2007. As a 2-piece, they released an EP of demos and b-sides on I’m Drinkin’ This Records entitled “It was like that when I got here”. Then in the summer of 2008, two new members joined the band. The first was Aaron, whom Robert and Patrick had known for nigh on a decade, and the second was another old friend, Jeff Koster, who was one of the founding members of Saddle Creek Records band Son Ambulance. They spent the rest of ’08 in the studio finishing their debut full-length “Mattress in the Afternoon”, released in December ’08 on I’m Drinkin’ This Records. They plan to spend most of 2009 on the road, while using down-time to work on their next album. On the side, they enjoy killing for fun and gardening.