You may have noticed the right bar of our blog, which has filled with peculiar photographs. Well, those are mix tapes. Yes mix tapes. We discovered 8tracks and found it to provide us with the easiest and quickest to use medium for expressing ourselves with none other than music. So keep an eye out for new mix tapes on Musefy’s 8tracks page.

In the mean time, check out our mixes, “Indie Roller Coaster of the Unknown’s Fun” and “Sit Back and Lose Yourself.” Both are a compilation of musicians who are underrated or undiscovered within the music community so in Musebox fashion, sit back and lose yourself to these artists.

Indie Roller Coaster of the Unknown’s Fun

“Indie Roller Coaster of the Unknown Fun” is chock full of true indie tracks that will take you on a ride beginning with the fast paced Morning Teleportation and Gobble Gobble, slowing down with the likes of Eric Doucette and Deb Oh. Oh did I mention that it was promoted by 8tracks?

Sit Back and Lose Yourself

“Sit Back and Lose Yourself” will take you on an eye closing pleasant reverie from take off to exciting landing.

Track Listings

“Indie Roller of the Unknown Fun”

Oy! by YOKE

Expanding Anyway by Morning Teleportation

Lawn Knives by GOBBLE GOBBLE

Wrinklecarver by GOBBLE GOBBLE

We Both Like Me by Jangula

Work by 1,2,3

Know Your Own Strength by Dinosaur Feathers

Glowing Mouth by Milagres

Master of Art by Laura Stevenson & the Cans

Almost Everything by Wakey!Wakey!

Dirty Night Clowns by Chris Garneau

No More Pirates by Chris Garneau

Square Peg Round Hole by Wakey!Wakey!

Vesper by Deb Oh

Revolving Door by Deb Oh

Twice Toda by Pearl and the Beard

Falter Discover by This Silent Forest

Swallow your keys by Eric Doucette

This is the Biggest (of all things we deserve) by Eric Doucette

“Sit Back and Lose Yourself”

Free Your Mind by Dan Sosedoff

When Time is Nothing by Dan Sosedoff

Twelve Days Awake by The American Dollar

Good For Me by High Above The Storm

Dragonfly / Time of Our Lives by High Above The Storm

A Thousand Whys by Conveyor

Equinox by The American Dollar

What Part Of Forever by The Very Best & Cee-Lo

Super Mom by The Very Best

“New Heaven” Album Teaser Trailer

To whet our appetites before the June 21 release date onto iTunes, CD and 12 inch LP, 1,2,3 released their album teaser trailer. I’ve been hyping up their debut from having covered them in an interview, but it’s not without reason. Taste the bittersweet tang of the tracks to come via the “New Heaven” teaser, filmed by their live guitarist, Mike Yamamoto. It has got an addicting kick doesn’t it?

As for my film perspective, the fish eye and miscellaneous Lomographic perspectives endears the nostalgic rustic urban Brooklyn ambiance backed by Nic Snyder and Joshua Sickle’s familiar “Work,” which then makes way for unfamiliar eerie dark frames of trees set to Nic’s slow wailing, utilizing his distinctive falsetto vocals, and eventually to warping neon frames that embody the unfamiliar to-be-released tracks. It’s admittedly a simple teaser to put together, but kudos for the filming and the mise-en-scène’s effectiveness.

Check out the trailer below:

1,2,3 / New Heaven Teaser from Mike Yamamoto on Vimeo.

“Work” Music Video

Construction is by far the quintessential nitty gritty blue collared job that an American can hold and Green Screening (the guys behind the making of the video) captures work in its raw, yet somewhat adulterated form. Life is a grind and all that glitters really isn’t glamourous. Plus, Nic and Joshua attempt to work construction in yellow hard hats to their single, “Work.”

Photo by Kyle Dean Reinford

Myspace | Facebook | Website | Twitter | Soundcloud

We’ve announced our infatuation with the duo of 1,2,3, so much so that we reviewed and interviewed the guys. Really, don’t blame us. It’s an unconscious decision – I swear. I blame Nic and Josh. Their newly released single, “Work” is hard hitting and infatuating, luring me to drift closer and closer to marooning myself on 1,2,3 land. But then again, would it be such a bad thing? It’ a 24/7 party over there. I can hear the distinctive falsetto vocals and the tambourine, electric guitar hybrid melodic child that lets everyone know who owns the island. “Work” just might be the fan favorite among the brood.

Since we’ve last caught up with them, they’ve been featured in Nylon magazine, and of course the blogosphere has continued to light up like a wildfire. Before the inevitable blow up transpires, follow their work because you can’t tell me I didn’t tell you so. Until then, anticipate the release of their debut album, “New Heaven” on June 21 under Frenchkiss records.

Check out “Work” and download the new track from 1,2,3 for free:

“Work” by 1,2,3

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[Phone Interview]

Joshua was late to call, but when I checked their Twitter page and discovered the following tweet:

“Broken down in the middle of Texas. That’s how the chainsaw massacre movies started.”

I chucked.

Understandably, it wasn’t the ideal time for an interview considering the circumstances, but Joshua, on foot on a highway somewhere two hours outside of Austin, gave me a call anyway for a light hearted chat. It must be an unnerving predicament for two friends be stranded in the middle of nowhere in an unfamiliar state after three long days of performing in Austin, Texas, but for Joshua Sickles, “it is what it is,”  and this was just one notch in the unorthodox story surrounding these Pittsburgh natives.

Nic Snyder and Joshua’s guitar and drum skills are admittedly far from Jimi Hendrix and John Bonham, considering that the extent of their musical training has been, learn it as you go. But these young veterans of the music industry, are seeing a speedy resurrection post-The Takeover UK. They’ve reformed in the embodiment of the intentionally ambiguous band name, 1,2,3, thanks to their equally unorthodox sounds uninhibited by Joshua’s primal instinct for hitting things, hard, and Nic’s complimenting staccato falsetto vocals.

They’ve been caught up in a whirlwind of acclaim and buzz landing a rare record deal with Frenchkiss Records a year after forming, despite not having been seen in a live performance, followed by critical acclaim from The Guardian and more recently, The New York Times. Yet to a degree, their success was foreseeable.

1,2,3 began as a side project that was motivated by Nic and Joshua’s frustration with a certain music business horror story stemming from their previous band’s nasty break up and the overseeing record label. Add to that, the duo simply matured when Nic, inspired by literature, threw a party for the one inescapable fate that exists for every human being.

I think it’s safe to say that these guys have finally gotten it right with 1,2,3 this time around. Now let’s throw the Confetti.

Musebox: How was SXSW and are there any crazy moments you’d like to share with us?

Joshua Sickles: South By was really good. We did like seven shows. It was the best show we played with the label Frenchkiss and a showcase with The Antlers. They also had the Daytrotter session, if you know Daytrotter at all. They have a studio set up in this garage and just go and record the whole song live and tape it. The crazy moments at South West are always nuts. It’s kind of just like a rat race. There’s nowhere to park, there’s people out and it’s just debauchery.

MB: Have you met anyone interesting over there?

JS: I met a couple of girls from the movie Grind House. The really hot twins. That was pretty funny. I’m not sure if you’ve seen Grind House or not.

MB: No I haven’t.

Yea it’s a Tarantino, Rodriguez split movie. It’s a horror movie.

Anyway, it’s just really busy. We had seven shows in three days. We go to a show, play for a little bit, load up our gear and go to the next show and then just hang out with other bands. I guess a crazy moment that I forgot was that the Strokes played a free show. There were 50,000 people who showed up and you couldn’t get in so a couple of the guys in the band would make the singer hop the fence. They got caught by security trying to hop the fence at the Strokes show. Two of the guys in the band were thrown out basically. It was pretty funny.

I’m sorry I’m walking on the highway.

MB: Are you trying to find a gas station or something?

JS: No we got towed to this garage. Anyway they’re closed on Sunday so we have to stay overnight in this really seedy motel right now. I think we’re just going to walk into a movie theatre and check out a movie. We’ve been broken down since 3 o’clock.

We were on our way home on a 17 hour drive and we only made it a couple hours outside of Austin. It could have been worse. There are more desolate areas out there to break down. At least we’re kind of near a town. The place we broke down was in the middle of nowhere but the place we got towed to was an actual town.

MB: How old were you both when you started playing together?

JS: Nic and I have been together since, he was 17 and I was 19? I guess I learned to play drums, but I didn’t really know how to play and we had been friends for a long time and basically stayed together. Then I moved.

Actually in high school I moved back and found out he was playing music and I was like, well let’s just give it a try. I basically played drums on glorified buckets. After a year we were in a band together, I taught myself how to play drums so the style I had back then is kind of the style I have today. Obviously I can play better but I kind of kept that style. It was more like, well since I don’t know how to play technically, I’m just going to hit the drums as hard as I can. So that’s kind of still how I play. When people see us live, they always talk about how I beat the shit out of my drum.

Yea we’ve been in various bands for about 10 years now, like touring bands. We were in a band before this called the Takeover UK., we had a record deal and toured, and pretty much every cliché music industry horror story happened to us. We made an album, was held hostage by the engineer because we didn’t have the money to pay for it and the label didn’t put it out for two years, and when it came out they dropped us after two months and then we finally had enough and Nic was like, “you know, I got these new songs, will you think about it? I’m going to call it 1,2,3.” That’s pretty much where it started.

It was a recording project at first, and basically we started sending music around and got some people from England who caught wind of it and we got a lawyer and publishing company over there and that’s kind of how it started with that label Chess Club. Will Street put out some singles for us over there and got us on Radio 1 when we did that tour in the UK last year.

MB: So it just happened that you and Nic ended up starting out in the UK with your new band?

JS: Yea, the UK was the first thing that happened. We moved to LA for a little bit, to try and start the band, but we basically really didn’t like LA. We had one show in LA and then went to England and played a few shows and still played a few shows around town in Pittsburgh, down in New York and LA.

All the balls rolled into the UK. We ended up getting signed. It’s pretty rare that we got signed, and Frenchkiss is a really good label. We got signed by them before they even saw us play live. We had like five shows under our belt and not one of them in New York. They didn’t see us play but they signed us. So I guess it was because of the buzz from the shows in New York. It was like we went over there and our shows were sold out. It was really weird. Because one of our singles got put on radio rotation on Radio 1 and kind of picked up some steam in the UK.

MB: Why did Nic come up with the band name, 1,2,3?

JS: It was because first of all, band names are whatever. I mean some of the coolest bands have a name like Radiohead but that’s kind of a stupid name when you think about it. Pretty much every band name was taken and he kind of wanted a name that was ambiguous. People will be like, have you heard of a band 1,2,3? You’re drawing conclusions on what it would sound like. You have a band name and you might think you know what they sound like, but with a name 1,2,3 it could sound like R. Kelly for all you know – an R&B song or something. We just wanted something you wouldn’t make a judgment on beforehand.

MB: So do you have a plan B if you were to move away from music in the future?

JS: I don’t know man, I’ve was in there for so long. Even before I was playing music, I was basically failing out of high school because I was touring with friend’s bands, selling merch and was a roadie.

Nic’s dad was a musician, he was on a band that was on a major label in the 70s, I guess Nic likes to do a lot of manual labor. It’s kind of funny. He’s kind of skinny and stuff. He worked on farms his whole life. He likes to build shit.

And me, I kind of always wanted to open up a pizza shop and buy out a place. I don’t know why. I consider myself a connoisseur of pizza. It’s kind of an inside joke between our band. They tell me I eat it every day. That’s what I would do, work in a pizza shop and Nic would work on a farm.

MB: When Nic is singing “Confetti” and just when you think the song is getting to the good part, all of a sudden I heard an abrupt and out of the blue, “Fucker.” What’s that all about?

JS: What happened is that we were recording it we were doing the basic track and trying to record the guitar and the vocals on the same track. The song is kind of an unnerving, bombastic song, but when he first wrote it, it was very much like “Imagine” by John Lennon, very chill, slower, very much more melodic. And he was doing it on acoustic and he just messed up. He’s like, “Fucker.” And we listened to that and we were like that was really hilarious, let’s just start the song out like that. When the real song kicked in we pasted them together on one track. It’s literally him messing up and him getting mad and swearing at himself. We just left it on there.

MB: Death is a bitch isn’t it? Are you coping with the reality by making a party out of it with “Confetti”?

JS: The lyrics of the song is about pondering death, but it’s on a light note primarily, even though we’re all going to die, it’s kind of a celebration of life and death and us all being stuck on this planet together. It’s a pretty simple concept, it’s a fresh take on it. It’s a fun song and that’s the song that kind of kick started this whole thing for us. It kind of hit the blogs last year. That’s where the punch started, with that song.

MB: If you died, what would you want the 7 billion people out there to remember you by?

JS: I don’t know man. It’s weird. We’re really Pittsburg, from a blue collar town, really down to earth. There’s a lot of misconceptions about guys in bands. With us there’s really no ego. We’re the type of guys who’ll sit down and have a beer with anyone like today, we were hanging out with this tow truck driver like shooting the shit.

I dunno, we’re just trying to make the most artistic and interesting music we can and we’d like to think that we’re doing that on a level now that has gone up and has really been noticed by a bigger audience. We’re people, we’re really simple people. We enjoy hanging out with our family and friends and girlfriends and that’s basically composed of hanging out with her and my cat.

You know, we’re just really simple people and our M.O. has just been, we just want to write. We want people to think that our songs are of a modern classics. When most bands look for a sound, it’s kind of like, there’s a lot of what’s going on now. Their styles are like, hey we’ll sound like the Local Natives. It just seems like trends just go in and out in indie.

I guess we’re just trying to write songs that stick around a little bit longer. If you listen to our album, it sounds like a mix tape almost. There’s really no style to it. Every song is a bit different but kind of somehow still tied together.

MB: Is there a venue or concert that if you played in, you would realize you’ve accomplished everything you dreamed of as a musician?

JS: We’d be happier playing bigger clubs and theater type places. I guess we really just want to make a living doing that. I would be happy with that. If we played, selling out 600 to 800 theaters across the country for the next ten years, I’d be satisfied. Obviously if we sold out Madison Square Garden, that would be great too, but I guess when we’re younger we have those aspirations. I think we’re a little bit more grounded right now.

MB: Who writes the music and what typically compels Nic to write it?

JS: Nic writes the songs. I’m  his filler guy. He’ll bring it in and I’ll tell him if it’s crap or if it’s good. I think before with Nic’s songwriting, it was a little more hard and sweet, now he kind of writes around concepts instead of the soft ideas. People will write what they know. I guess I wouldn’t like doing that.

A lot of our album ponders death and religion. There’s a lot of spiritual confusion that you hear on the songs, on the album. I think that he gets influenced by music, movies and books. On one level he has a very artistically charged mind and he just taps in that area of thought and philosophy and he’s very much grounded in pop music too. We all love the Beatles.

MB: When will the album be launching?

JS: The album is coming out in June. It’s our first record with Frenchkiss. We put out three singles last year. La La Records, which was the “Confetti” single and then two more on the UK label, Chess Club Records. The second single we did was called “Going Away Party,” which was a UK single which caused buzz over in the UK.

MB: What instruments are in your arsenal?

JS: Well I play Gretsch drums and Nic plays Gretsch guitars, but he mainly plays Fender Stratocaster. As far of the rest of the album, there’s so much shit all over. I mean, pianos, keyboards, glockenspiel, we hired some string players for our record. And we do a lot of nontraditional percussion recording. We’ll take sticks and smash them on trashcans and there’s stuff on our album of me hitting a cinderblock with a microphone like fifty feet away and recording it that way. You get interesting sounds. On the album, you’ll hear that it doesn’t sound like anything that’s out there right now.

MB: You really love to hit things.

JS: Yea, it’s all very primal. Nic and I aren’t trained musicians. Nic is actually turning into a pretty damn good guitar player over the years, but not like musician, musician. We’re guys who want to write songs and be in bands, so there isn’t any formal classical training.

MB: What do you think of Myspace?

JS: Dude, Myspace is a tragedy. I used to follow that. That’s kind of where it all started for us. I added this woman from England and it really just kicked out from there. Myspace has just been a mess. It won’t even navigate. They tried to compete with Facebook and Twitter and Myspace peaked in 2006 or so. It was really great and the easiest website to use and really great to listen to music a lot. And even to use as a personal social network, I still think to this day, it was the best one.

Facebook kind of gets obnoxious.

For Myspace, people just don’t use it anymore. Now you can’t even add people on Facebook, they have to come to you. I think it’s much harder now on Myspace to get a hold of your fan base compared to before. It’s hard to make new fans. But then again, part of the reason it died was that people were sick of spam, people were sick of bands requesting them and blowing up their page with requests. On one hand it was really good and on the other hand it got really obnoxious.

MB: Do you have any advice for aspiring musicians?

JS: Always do what you want all the time and don’t cater and pander to any audience. We’ve done that in the past with bands and it just kind of leads to nowhere. And let people come to you because no one likes people who are pushy. There are bands who are peddling their shit all the time. It just kind of becomes pathetic. If your songs are good and just kind of throw them out there, leave a little mystery. All the best bands have a little mystery behind them. I think that will work out better for you in the long run.

Just do, it sounds really cliché but we’ve learned it in this band. Do 100% what you want from the heart and do not cater to anyone, whether it’s your label, your manager, what you think other people want to hear. If you have something that’s good and you just do it to a 100% of what you want to do, things will fall through much quicker than trying to force it down people’s throats.

MB: So to sum it up, be true to who you are as a musician?

JS: Yea, it’s a pretty simplistic point of view, but some of these things are cliche for a reason. So when you hear these things so much, you tend to ignore them. I think a lot of musicians these days start out with good intentions, but become disingenuous because they get desperate.

It’s hard being a musician and trying to make a living. The competition out there is just ridiculous. Even at SXSW, 2000 bands may be playing in the same week but your band or another band is one competing with the other 1999 bands. So if you’re trying to fix your sound to what other people want to hear, you’re just going to blend into the background.

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The duo, Nic Snyder and Josh Sickles, from Pittsburgh was a new addition to Frenchkiss Record’s lineup and quite the find at that. The falsetto vocals and funk rock meets retro pop mash up on their track, “Going Away Party” to the mellow laze-on-the-couch and calmer “Riding Coach,” are set to appear on their debut LP, “Confetti,” later this year. Rush it please. I’m not the most patient person. In the meantime, if you’re looking for a download, you can find a free download of “Riding Coach” and “Heat Lightnin’” on their Facebook page.

Going Away Party by 123land
Confetti by 123land
Riding Coach by 1,2,3