BAND INTERVIEW: Tiny Moving Parts

Tiny Moving Parts is a post-post-hardcore band from Minnesota that came by The Dial warehouse back in August. I had a quick conversation with them after their set, but due to my overwhelming sloth as of late its been trapped in my voice recorder until now. I did most of the transcribing while on the way to Gnarmageddon Fest III with Shane and Katelyn and finished it the next night in between bands at the warehouse.

This is the transcription of that talk we had, August 10 2013.
* Note: I might be getting the names of the speakers wrong; their 3 voices were all kinda similar but its probably pretty much right. I based my idea on who was talking on their introductions. It's whatever, you know?

Ian: Okay, I'm here with Tiny Moving Parts; you guys are on tour right now, correct?
Dylan: Yeah, we're on like a 45-day run, today is like the 32nd day I believe and it's been going great; so far it's probably the best tour we've ever done.
Billy: Yeah it has been the best tour we've ever done

Ian: I started that off wrong, I should at least get some introductions; what are your guys' names?
Matt: I'm Matt
Dylan: I'm Dylan, I play guitar and I sing
Billy: I'm Billy, I play drums

Ian: Where are you located out of?
Dylan: We live in Benson, MN, which is like a town of 3,000 people - like a farm community.

Ian: On your album, one of the first songs is "Dakota" and it's kinda talking about the Midwest, seemingly. What would you say, after being on tour, are some distinctions between the coasts [versus the Midwest]?

Billy: One thing that's really fun is when we tour the east coast, we just see like the difference in how bands sound and how the crowd's reaction is to our music. It's different on both sides [of the country.]

Ian: Is it more energetic [in one place versus another]?
Dylan: It's getting to the point where its more of the same [everywhere], like alot more people are knowing that the world's round. On the east coast the DIY venues are alot of like, basements and houses and small crowded rooms; out here, this is the second warehouse we've played. These DIY spaces [on the West Coast] seem more legit; its like, halfway-venue and halfway-house show.

Ian: So how would you characterize how shows go down out there where you're from?
Dylan: The Midwest - like where we're from, Benson MN - we don't play shows like all the time, just cuz we can't. We'll go to the Fargo, ND area, there there's like one DIY venue that we play...That's really fun though.
Billy: There's that one basement we play at too
Matt: People show up to the basement shows

Ian: Another thing I kinda noticed on the album - and I didn't notice this in the live set so much - was an almost spoken-word element to the lyrics; it was somewhat like - and I hate to cite such an obvious band here - La Dispute.
Tiny Moving Parts Collectively: Yeah, yeah, we've heard that.

Ian: But live, [that element wasn't as apparent]. Any comment on that?
Dylan: When we recorded, the songs were super fresh, we hadn't been playing them for so long, and like, by now - if we rerecorded the album now it'd be alot different. There's parts that are fast, there's parts that are slower, it's changed.

Ian: When I heard you I didn't realize you were a 3-piece; I thought you were gonna be like a 5-piece with a singer. You guys are very intricate, have you guys been playing together for a long time?
Dylan: Yeah, well, Matt & Billy are brothers and I'm their first cousin; we've been playing music since we were 10 or 11.
Billy: We'd play like Blink 182 and stuff like that; just learning covers.

Ian: You have a unique style that seems like its ... I feel like I can't represent what I'm trying to say in sentences right now - but what are some of the bands that may have brought you to where you are now?
Dylan: I mean, like, Tera Melos, maybe like Fall Of Troy, and then there's Thursday; we loved Thursday growing up; Brand New, stuff like that.
Billy: We like both sides of things; there's the technical side of things, and then there's emotional/heartfelt [side].
Dylan: Alot of the emotional parts come from, like, friends' bands that just kinda started up in the Midwest and ... [Cyndi Lauper's timeless hit single "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" started blaring out of the warehouse at this point and obscured my recording of this answer's conclusion. We can only wonder.]

Ian: So while you've been on tour, have you encountered anything particularly negative, like a venue that sucked or something?
Dylan: Well on previous tours...we a booked a tour several months ago, when we were like, nobody as a band but we wanted to go on tour. There were like 1 in 4 shows that were good that time. We'd book shows and we'd get to the venue and it'd be like a coffee shop [and they'd say] 'This is more of an acoustic setting, I don't know if you can play,' so we'd have to cancel shows like that.
Billy: One time we played a bar too, somewhere in Northern California; no one came except the band we were on tour with and even the bartender left, so we were literally just playing for that band.
Dylan: We had alot of practice shows
(laughter)

Ian: Alright, I'm gonna leave it here: what would you say is your favorite breakfast food?
Dylan: I like these questions.
Matt: I like the breakfast burritos from Sonic
Ian: Okay that's an easy one
Dylan: Anything with bacon on it literally makes it a good deal. It kinda sounds cliche, you know, but it's awesome
Billy: I'd say breakfast pizza. That's some good stuff right there.
Ian: What's funny is you're only the second person I've ever heard talk about breakfast pizza; Do you mean like pizza dough with breakfast stuff on it or is it a different thing?
Billy: It's like, pizza with alfredo sauce, eggs, ham, bacon, green peppers; I think that's about it.

Ian: Now I'm thinking about a question, before I leave: The Brett Favre samples [on the album], are they sincere or those kinda, like, undercutting?
Billy: They're however you wanna take it.
Ian: Cuz the first one seems so sincere and the other one is like, someone's downfall or something
Billy: Yeah, yeah, that's what it is.
Dylan: I was really hungover and I was just like, 'I'll just quit messing around with all this weird guitar stuff,' and we were all drunk and like, put on Brett Favre's farewell speech and it fit so perfectly
Billy or Matt: Especially the first one
Dylan: It's a good way to do an intro to a CD you know, instead of doing like [the reverb thing] it's like, Brett Favre is quitting football.

Ian: Are you guys Packers fans?
Billy: We're supposed to hate The Packers but we're not huge football fans
Dylan and/or Matt: But when Brett Favre came out...and he was like, crying...so fucking cool...it was the best
Billy: And then on Sundays [when he was with the Vikings] it was like you knew, everyone in Green Bay and everyone in Minnesota was losing their fucking minds

Ian: Okay I'm gonna wrap it up; I'm just gonna say "Go Chargers"
All: Go Chargers!! (laughter)

Ian: Thank you much for your time, I wish you luck on your tour; where are you guys headed from here?
Dylan: Phoenix!
Billy: We're already all sunburned and its like 115 degrees out there

Ian: No kidding. Alright well I'll send this your way when its done, should I email you guys or what's the best way [to contact you]?
Dylan: Probably on Facebook is the best way, we'll usually respond if you message us.

Ian: Alright cool.


Tiny Moving Parts
Facebook
Bandcamp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra5k09oIiEI

Playlist for January 2014

- This is the list of all the albums, EPs, demos, etc that I listened to in their entirety during the month of January 2014. I got kinda lazy about documenting things towards the end of the month because I listened to the same CDs over and over (which is odd for me but I couldn't help it) Afterwards are my notes and a list of the live performances I saw as well.

MUSIC:
1/1/14
Down Again - "Voices"
The Coltranes - "The Man With The Hat" EP
V/A - Hopeless Records Summer Sampler 2005
Smashing Pumpkins - "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" 2CD

1/2/14
Mahjongg - "The Long Shadow of the Paper Tiger"

1/3/14
Crisis Arm - "Fetch" EP
The Sundays - "Static & Silence"
Cro-Mags - "The Age Of Quarrel"

1/4/14
Cro-Mags - "Best Wishes"
The Telephone Projects - "Faustian Children"
Remiss - "Spring MMXIII" Demo
Crisis Arm - 2014 Demos
Nate Ramirez/n8Nothing - KP Demos
Kettle Cadaver - "Halloween"
Blood Orphans - S/T EP
Stella - September 2013 Demo
Kettle Cadaver - "Horronomicon" CD single
Apathean - "Eve"
Filter - "Short Bus"
Apathean - "Eve"
The Dillinger Escape Plan - "Miss Machine"

1/5/14
Front 242 - "Official Version"
Team Sleep - S/T
The B-52s - "Cosmic Thing"
The Effigies - "Remains Nonviewable"
Brett Siler - "In-Sea" EP
Feed Me Jack - "Anatolia"
The Speed Of Sound In Seawater - "First Contact"
V/A - D.A Records "Three Dee" compilation CD
The Nobles - "Pitfalls of Earth Life"
Over It - "Step Outside Yourself" tour sampler CD
Sights Sounds - "Mammoth" EP

1/6/14
Infinity Dots - "Fantasy Material"/"Hunchbacks" digitial single
Irie Society - S/T
Run With The Hunted - "Find Your Way Out" EP
Chronic Sick - "Cutest Band In Hardcore" EP
Chronic Sick - S/T 7"
Warrant - "Cherry Pie"

1/7/14
Sky Mall - "The Natural State" EP
Big Whup - S/T EP
Motion Picture Show - "Frame By Frame"
Between The Buried And Me - "The Great Misdirect"

1/8/14
Midwest Moms - S/T EP
Tyrannosaurus Zebra - "A Compact Disc"
Tyrannosaurus Zebra - "Striped Horse Dinosaur" EP
Sheep's Head - "Punk In The Trunk Bootlegs Vol. 4" live album

1/9/14
Suzy's Dead - "Vol. II"
Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - "Global-A-Go-Go"

1/10/14
Crisis Arm - "Fetch" EP
INXS - "Kick"

1/11/14
Midwest Moms - S/T cassette
The Gravitys - "Bring You Down"
The Gravitys - May 2011 Demo
The Gravitys - June 2011 Demo
Growing - "Pumps!"
Kyoko - "Isn't That A Girl's Name?"
Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk - "Eek Shriek Beak"
The Hurt Process - "Drive By Monologue"

1/12/14
Brahms - "Shimmer/Suffocate"
Stars Are Insane - 12/27/2013 live recording
Stars Are Insane/Morgue Toad - split EP
Nicole Kidman - "If We Say It In Unison" EP

1/13/14
Del The Funky Homosapien - "Iller Than Most"
Shannon & The Clams - "Gremlins Crawl"/"White Rabbit" 7"
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - "Wig Out At Jagbag's"
Pilgrims - "Jessica"
end of the summer - "Second" EP
end of the summer - "Three" EP

1/14/14
end of the summer - "Second" EP
Funeral Oration - "Discography" Disc 2

1/15/14
Mr. Elevator & The Brain Hotel - "Nico & Her Psychedelic Subconscious"

1/16/14
Blood Brothers - "Crimes"
Bay Of Pigs - "Never" EP
Sleep Walk - "Never Alone"/"Throat Clogg" digital single
Hounds Of Hate - 2012 Cassette
The B-52s - "Cosmic Thing"

1/17/14
The B-52s - "Cosmic Thing"
Smashing Pumpkins - "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" Disc 2

1/18/14
Funeral Oration - "Discography" Disc 2

1/19/14
Funeral Oration - "Survival"
Carnifex - "Dead In My Arms"

1/20/14
The B-52s - "Cosmic Thing"

1/21/14
The Gravitys - "Bring You Down"

1/30/13
Vanna - "Curses"
V/A - Hopeless Records Summer Sampler 2005

MUSIC NOTES:
- The New Year's party I went to devolved into a fight just before midnight struck so it's fitting that the first album I listened to was a hardcore album. When I saw Down Again a few years ago at Vic's Warehouse a fight also occurred.
- That Hopeless Records sampler is like 100% good stuff; I forgot about a lot of those bands
- "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" is still soooo damn dense and awesome I love that album; fuck Celine Dion
- "Every Time"
- "World Peace Can't Be Done" ; Also, the drums on "Best Wishes" = damn
- Worst of the month: The Telephone Projects; Over It; INXS
- IMO Team Sleep is the best project that anyone involved with it has ever done; Classic
- It's difficult to convey how unexpectedly yet deeply I love the "Cosmic Thing" album; it's so fun but the melodies are just absolutely perfect; "Junebug" and especially "Topaz" are my favorite songs of the month
- Irie Society has never been my style exactly but damn did they do the thing; "Back In The Day"
- That Warrant CD isn't nearly as bad as I expected it was gonna be
- When I saw Motion Picture Show doing sound at the UCI Student Center, I seriously thought they were gonna blow right the fuck up; some of these songs are just so damn catchy; I was obviously wrong however
- I didn't like "The Great Misdirect" like, at all when I first got it but I think that's just because I had been so damn obsessed with "Colors"; After a few years have passed I see what a great album it is as well
- "Mondo Bongo"
- How was INXS so big they sucked
- It's annoying how much I listen to my own shitty music
- I never realized how familiar I was with that Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk CD...I've had it for several years and never tripped out on it and then this time it was like, damn I know every song
- Del The Funky Homosapien's new album is the dankness
- Pilgrims, 'bout to take shit over
- I can't believe I broke that Funeral Oration CD...What an idiot

LIVE:
1/10/14: Crisis Arm/Sheeps Head/Great Ghosts/Suzy's Dead/Midwest Moms/Tyrannosaurus Zebra @ The Dial
1/22/14: Heartless Breakers/Sledding With Tigers/Tommy Cornell & The Glass Daggers/(The Gravitys - acoustic) @ The Dial
1/25/14: C. Kitten/(end of the summer)/Rohith Gopal & Friend/File Island/Suzy's Dead @ The Dial Folk Night
1/30/14: Dogs/Ice Hockey/(The Gravitys)/Jurassic Shark @ Bridgetown DIY

LIVE NOTES:
- Midwest Moms are really good with a cool dark 80s feel
- Rohith Gopal & his friend play real folk music with nice melodies like they used to do in the 60s...Very Peter Paul And Mary, in the best of ways
- I messed up that end of the summer set so bad
- That was our first time going to Bridgetown and we had a good time. Thanks for having us.

I AM IN YOUR CAR

Listen;

No, don't interrupt me,

Shut the fuck up and listen to me.

For one second

Just stop it

I am in your car.

I know you don't care about yourself;

Whatever about that.You know better than me.

But please,

Care about me.

"Believe in me like I believe in you." - The Smashing Pumpkins

Please just care about me a little bit.

The way you always say you do...

You know that I would never do this to you.

This seatbelt isn't enough to save me

If things go wrong;

If we hit the wall...

I don't mean to bum you out

But this has already happened before

And I can see what's coming.

And I don't want to be a part of it.

I AM IN YOUR CAR.

If you're not gonna Drive Safely

Then please just let me out.

If you love something just let it go. 

Resolution

"It can't be New Year's every day." - The Gravitys 

I cannot make any promises to you

Beyond what you already know to be true.

I'm not gonna lie and say things will

Somehow Change

Because Of Words.

"You wouldn't have to say.

I'd already know."

EXTREME!!!

What I will have resolution with

Is that we are together right now

And I'm not gonna leave you unless you want me to.

I believe that we are going to Achieve whatever we are doing. 

Eat. Drink. Be Merry.

Exercise. Emote. Be Yourself.

Happy Birthday Walt.

I love you.