shit horse
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shit horse

Carrboro, North Carolina, United States

Carrboro, North Carolina, United States
Band Rock Punk

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"Interview - Shit Horse"

First things first, congratulations on the EP, a fine listen indeed and one that kind of appeared from nowhere, for me personally in an old fashion type word of mouth scenario. We mentioned in our review that the EP is currently only available on cassette, what was the thought process behind that decision?

The decision to release on cassette only began when we decided to record on an analog Tacam 4-track. We liked the sound of that, cassettes are really cheap to produce and we decided that a lot of people just want the files most of the time now just lead us to decide: “fuck it”. We did a tape with our vision for the thing (it’s got little weird experiments between songs etc) and the People (old people and people who drive used cars mostly) can hear it and the digital freaks can have the meat if they felt inclined. Also we are called Shit Horse so there was never hope for any “success” in conventional terms and we liked exaggerating that.

That’s a very unconventional way of going about things, especially in the modern age. We also note that there isn’t much info to be found about the band on the web, there are no MySpace or Facebook pages for instance. In light of this, could you give us a brief overview of the band and its history?

Sure. It all goes back to a drawing really. Braintrust and I worked at the same restaurant and our boss (now our record label) Paul Finn drew a poorly drawn horse above which was written “shit horse” and below “They shit horses, Don’t they?”. He was always drawing fake album covers that he thought were funny or awesome (mostly they were neither) but we both liked this one and decided to start writing songs that would be on this ficticious album. Then it carried over to when we got out of the bars and we were a two piece with a different drummer every time. Then we got a call that (this fucking amazing band from town) called Pipe was canceling a show because one of the guys got rocky mountain spotted fever. They wanted one of our other bands but they couldn’t do it so we decided to try to do a Shit Horse show. We asked our now drummer Red if he wanted to play and he said “fuck yea!”.

I had met Danny Magic a week before. I was coming down from taking LSD and my girlfriend was mad at me for taking it (I usually don’t) and Danny walked in. He introduced himself as “local legend Danny Mason” and sang me front to back a 20 minute long album that he had “in his head”. On the way out the door that night he told me “Sometimes, you gotta treat yourself like a lady. All effeminate like. Sometimes you need to breast feed yourself, interprit that into your own words.” I laughed because there is no other way to say that.

So at the Cave show the next week he was there, drunk in the back playing pool. After one of the shitty songs in the set I stupidly said “Nigggaaa” on the mic. Justin started yelling me and calling me a racist and I was trying to explain that I was “post PC”. The crowd was freaked out of course and one of them told Danny. He remembered me and saved my ass by putting a white paper towel under his hat and over his face with two eye-holes cut out. He did spin moves all the way to the front of the stage, grabbed one of our mics and said “Play motherfuckers!” then we did and he sang “I am the motherfucking KKK”. The crowd got even more freaked out and we asked him to join the band later. Shit Horse was born.

He seems quite a character Danny, it is quite an odd set up for a band, with younger guys playing the music and laying down the foundations and an older guy singing his heart out on top. From the outside looking in it would seem that you have inspiration and life experiences from two separate generations colliding to create something unique, would that be a fair assumption? It’s not really a set up that we see very often.

Yea! Actually without pointing fingers there is a member of our band in their 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's so that is a very accurate point. We are all good friends and try to just see each other as equals so there really is no leader per se.

So, bit of an obvious question, but with all those age ranges and the democratic policy Shit Horse applies, what are some of your influences as a band, what kind of music or art inspired these songs?

The biggest inspiration would have to be the actual guitar that started Shit Horse. It is called the “terminator”, it’s black and I think they sold it at Toys R’ Us in the 80s. Justin picked it up for around five dollars at a garage sale. It takes two 9v batteries and has a built in speaker (which sounds broken). It forces you to play very simple one note type stuff because thats what sounds cool on it.

So what is the writing process within the band, is it a democratic policy where everyone has a say or does one person bring a song in and everyone works on it, also does Danny write all the lyrics?

Most of the songs you hear on They Shit Horses, Don’t They were written as guitar parts on the Terminator first. Then we would sort them out live during street performances in our early days. Danny made up words about whatever he was feeling at that particular moment.

When it came time to record, Danny actually didn’t have any words written. We had the music tracks recorded and he showed up in a bad mood (he wasn’t getting a lot of sleep back then). He would ask “What’s this song about?” and listen to a few bars. Then we would just press record and what you hear is him making up words on the spot. We kept the first take of everything. He had to go back later and learn his own words!

The EP does have a sense of intensity about it. Musically the essence of the band kind of reminded me a bit of Crazy Horse, where its quite simple in structure but it has an edge to it and it feels like it could fall apart at any moment. It keeps the listener on their toes. Did you record the EP live to capture that feeling?

We recorded live because it’s more fun and takes less time doing it that way. We mixed all the instruments into one channel on the tape machine so we would have three other tracks to add backround vocals and Danny. The intentsity comes from the fact that we are having fun not trying to add too much garbage in there.

What’s next for Shit Horse, do you have any plans to record any new material?

We have started recording a couple songs and we have enough to make another tape which we will get around to as soon as we sell out of They Shit Horses, Don’t They tapes. I think there are fifty left. I have also been writing songs for “shit bear” and I was thinking of doing a shit horse/shit bear split 45. Besides that maybe a children’s album (kid horse or shit kids).

Excellent, we look forward to hearing the new stuff. Any plans to maybe tour the UK anytime?

We are certainly in the market for a booking agent. We’ll get our passports tomorrow if that happens.

Thank you very much for your time, any last words for the Shit Horse fans out there, current and future?

Thanks! Eat shit and ride! - Culture Deluxe


"Shit Horse – Bowel-Clenching, Gutsy, Foxy"

Sigh. It’s as predictable as the sun rise, toast landing jam-side down and David Beckham harvesting acres of column inches every time he trims his beard.

A band called Shit Horse was always going to appear on ANBAD, from the moment I read their name. Yes, I rolled my eyes too.

Perhaps I ought to have a more rigorous set of criteria for selecting bands – an ethos a little more robust than “Funny Name = Instant Review“, but where would be the fun in that?

Shit Horse // Don’t Smell Too Good (But It Keeps Me From Burning)

Besides, Shit Horse are good. And, like The Vacinnes last week, they reveal frighteningly little about themselves on the internet, which leaves me free to fill in the gaps with all kinds of half-truths.

Don’t Smell Too Good (But It Keeps Me From Burning) is a curate’s egg – combining blunt garage rock, a suggestion of electronic jiggery-pokery and bowel-clenchingly gutsy blues vocals may not be a sure-fire route to financial success, but it sure as hell sounds like a blast. If this song was an animal, it’d be a foetid fox, howling ferally, one leg trapped in barbed wire.

Who are Shit Horse? Why are Shit Horse? Such questions have teased and tantalised humanity throughout the ages. Until answers are provided, we’ll have to be satisfied with a song that’s twice as grubby and half as careful as we’d probably ask for, but one that we definitely deserve. - A New Band A Day


"Film at 11: Shit Horse"

This summer, Shit Horse released its debut EP, the excellently titled They Shit Horses, Don’t They? (Odessa). But did we mention it’s only available on cassette with a free digital download included? How cool is that. Anyway, the North Carolina quartet recorded the seven tracks live at home on an old four-track, bouncing the instruments on to one track in order to leave three available for vocals, a la the Beatles. Shit Horse recently shot an 11-minute video titled “Shit Horse Rides” that incorporates the band’s music and an awesome story of international intrigue. MAGNET is proud to debut the video below. - Magent Magazine


"Shit Horse's "They Shit Horses, Don't They?""


If you're compelled to wince at Shit Horse on first glance, that's understandable. The band—three young, white rock musicians from Carrboro and Danny Mason, a black frontman two decades older than the band's youngest member—doesn't do itself many favors: They're called Shit Horse, of course, and the title of their debut cassette is a riff on the 1969 Jane Fonda film about a dance marathon. They have a theme song—"Shit Horse! Is Gonna Ride!," ad infinitum—and they prefer to present their songs via guerilla sets late at night on the streets of Orange County. Their lyrics are a wasteland of scatological and equine references. "Have you ever bitten off more than you could chew? Have you ever had a log you couldn't poo?," the track "Twelve Horses" concludes.

But don't pardon yourself too quickly. They Shit Horses, Don't They? is a collection of seven willfully weird, delightfully corroded Nuggets, each having more to do with defiance and dignity than shit and saddles. The 78-second "Get Out of My Face" is a whipsmart kiss-off. Mason barks at the way the world's been treating him, and the band chants his layman mantra between verses: "I see you every day/ You get into my face/ Won't you just go away/ This job would be pretty cool without you." "Floating/ Drifting" is a brooding builder, guitars, bass and drums slinking through a morass as Mason earnestly condemns some naysayer. The band ratchets the rhythm until they deliver Mason into a post-punk fistfight, his exasperated voice insisting that he won't be defeated. So, yeah, maybe Shit Horse is a gimmick with an attitude and a sense of humor for teenagers. But what else did you think rock 'n' roll promised?
- Independant Weekly


"They Shit Horses, Don't They"

Y'know, aún cuando este blog tiene una clara preferencia por música electrónica y afro-tropical, de vez en cuándo un poco de guitarra eléctrica no nos cae mal.

Entonces Shit Horse es una banda de Carrboro, Carolina del Norte, conformada por un cantante negro de 51 años llamado Danny "Magic" Mason y un poco de tipos blancos veinteañeros que crean un soundscape psicodélico y garagero (garage-ero?) mientras Magic le grita furiosamente al micrófono. Supongo que los podríamos describir como garage rock, aunque siguiendo un línea bastante idiosincrática dentro del género.

Y bueno, aparentemente son relativamente populares en la zona de Chapel Hill y sus shows en vivo son de puta madre. Pero poco más es lo que sé acerca de ellos. En todo caso, lo que importa es que sacaron hace poco un EP con el hilarante nombre de "They Shit Horses, Don't They?" (hay bandas que simplemente no quieren ser famosas). Está solido, corto pero sustancioso, como todo EP de calidad. Fuck yeah.

Trataría de desciribr un poco más el sonido de la banda pero creo que la foto de arriba lo dice todo. - Discos La Chop Shop


"Shit Horse "They Shit Horses Don't They""

At a first glance, this might all seem just a little too weird. Not much is known about Shit Horse, surprisingly, in the current world where information is readily available at your finger tips in seconds. There isn’t much about Shit Horse to be found anywhere, not even on the world wide web, but what we do know is that the band is a four piece that consists of three youngish white boys playing psychedelic charged rock n roll, augmented by an older (50 ish..?) black guy wailing and screaming like a disheveled Captain Beefheart going cold turkey after a 20 year crack addiction. Yeah its rather odd. But the They Shit Horses, Don’t They? EP, the bands debut release through Odessa records, is weird and odd in a good way.

Opening up with Twelve Horses , the sound of a choir fills the air for a brief moment before all goes quiet and an eerie, reverb drenched guitar part slowly builds accompanied by droney voices proclaiming ‘I wish you 12 horses when you die’, before the rest of the band join in along with lead singer Danny Mason bellowing the refrain, the song slowly builds and accelerates in speed before dropping out. Four minutes into this bands debut release and you can tell this is utterly unique, and though obviously heavily inspired by 60’s psychedelia, it sounds so fresh and vibrant.

As we clatter our way through the remaining six songs of the EP, its clear the band are actually quite savvy and they lay down a perfect platform throughout for Mason to spit his bile and rant and rave in his own unique way, his voice acting like a complete instrument in its own right, constantly soloing throughout. That’s not to say the man can’t sing mind, it would be harsh to say otherwise, and although at times his voice sounds croaky and raw as he waxes lyrical with a delivery that’s perched somewhere between the aforementioned Beefheart combined with the off beat scat type musings of Ol’ Dirty Bastard, just one listen to the aptly titled Floating/Drifting shows that the guy can hold a note and for a man of his age, his soulful delivery sounds like the voice of a world-weary and well travelled pilgrim, which he may well be.

The entire EP is short and compact coming in at just over 18 minutes and a familiar coherent theme runs throughout the record, opener Twelve Horses is reprised somewhat with the predominantly instrumental, pysch wig out Thirteen Horses, showcasing the bands ability to drive a song on its musical merits alone. This isn’t just about Mason, the band have a major part to play and have somehow put their own bright twist on a well trodden path and although its lo-fi in nature, its not really a sound that lends itself to any of the current lo-fi/no-fi trends, its set apart from that, and in 2010, sounds rather refreshingly odd and new.

The EP is currently only available on cassette, and with the Odessa website having little information about the band other than a small blurb about the record, we don’t really know what the next step is for Shit Horse. A full length LP is rumoured and we can only but hope they get the chance to come and play some gigs over here in blighty; a few rough YouTube clips would imply this would be a great band to witness live and something of an experience, and as the last song on the EP claims, in its theme tune-esque call to arms, we can only prey that Shit Horse is gonna ride! - Culture Deluxe


"Shit Horse "They Shit Horses Don't They""


(Odessa) This has to be my favorite record of 2010. I always give points to any act with a theme song that incorporates the band's name, but when the name is this good, and the song is actually a disconcertingly short jingle, I'm already in their pocket. But what I really love about this band is the defiance of the trend of a predominantly Caucasian band getting an older black singer and then instantly thinking they are transformed into cool hipster Soul Brother sidemen by the magical Negro's presence. This group refuses to become cool, refuses to be pigeonholed into playing so-called black music, and refuses to condescend or exploit their singer. Instead his resonant tones stand out more because he's singing with (and against) oddball damage music. By making jarring, meticulously crafted songs that eschew blues patterns and conventions their frontman doesn't become a weak copy of a 60s icon, he becomes an individual doing his thing. Plus the songs are about horses and shit. Which is what this band is. The SHIT! - Roctober Magazine


Discography

They Shit Horses, Don't They? EP Cassette/Digital

Photos

Bio

Shit Horse began as a street performing "guerrilla" style attack band. They played on a sidewalk during Merge Fest in Chapel Hill, NC three nights in a row with the help of a battery-powered guitar, garage-sale amplifiers, an extension chord, a small drum set, a megaphone and fireworks. The size of the crowd seemed to double every successive night. These uninvited early performances were the only form of "practicing" Shit Horse ever got.
The band recorded an EP called "They Shit Horses, Don't They?" on a 4-track tape recorder. After all of the music tracks were done live, Danny Mason showed up and invented all of the lyrics on the spot, earning him the nickname Danny "Magic". He later had to listen to the finished recording and memorize his own words.
While some (incorrectly) consider Shit Horse a gimmick or perhaps a novelty act, others like Tom Ravenscroft (son of the late great John Peel) of BBC6 have embraced the album.
The first two-three songs of any live Shit Horse performance are almost always met with confusion which eventually dissolves into ecstatic enthusiasm.