Van Goose

https://vangoose.bandcamp.com

Van GooseVan Goose is the moniker of long time producer and multi instrumentalist Shlomi Lavie.His sophomore album, Post-Truth and Bird Feeders, was released on September 2nd, 2022.https://linktr.ee/vangoosePost-Truth and Bird Feeders, released 02 September 20221. Snake Eyes2. Dad Rock Boat3. Hard Right4. Post-Truth and Bird Feeders5. Where is Claire6. Modern Times7. Are These My Hands8. Insurrection Swag9. The SubstituteI spent a year diving into, observing and archiving the darkest corners of the internet during the strangest year in recent history. I was driven by the urge to understand the digital ecosystem and its ability to alter and mold people’s perspectives so efficiently.Basically asking my self, "how the fuck did we get here?"In a way, watching other people go down the rabbit hole became my very own rabbit hole.After climbing out of my hole, feeling emotionally charged, I went into the studio to write and record Post-Truth and Bird Feeders.------------------------------------------------------------------------------It would be a stretch to say the movie Hackers was based on Shlomi Lavie's life, but he was a big part of that burgeoning community in the '90s. Aside from being able to write clean and compelling code in several languages, the singer/multi-instrumentalist ran a bulletin board system (a.k.a. BBS) of like-minded computer programmers looking to trade loose ideas and the latest software over their creaky dial-up connections."I wasn’t causing any damage," Lavie says of his cyberpunk phase. "I was just a kid enjoying the thrill of entering some company’s computer. But one day, someone I knew very well had his house raided after doing some really dumb stuff (shutting down a university’s computer system for a couple of days just for fun). That was when I decided to unplug my modem and move onto my next interest — music."At first that meant lots of practicing and playing with local bands in Lavie's hometown, Haifa. A few years later, he moved to Tel Aviv and began to pursue music professionally alongside the avant-garde band Habiluim and such acclaimed Israeli musicians as Berry Sakharof, Arik Einstein and Yehudit Ravitz. Other Notable work included a gig with Dan Aykroyd and a loose recording session with Ryan Gosling and local musician/producer Rona Kenan.Once he wrapped that formative chapter, Lavie decided to leave Tel Aviv behind for Brooklyn, where he launched the electro-punk experiment Dolchnakov Brigade, landed a longtime gig in Marcy Playground, and split his time between session work and producing such up-and-coming artists as Hank & Cupcakes, Radiator King, Yula Beeri and Yael Kraus.Lavie's main creative outlet is Van Goose, however, a solo project that might as well be a full-bodied band. While its dance-rock debut, 2019's Habitual Eater, leaned into mirror ball melodies and high beam hooks like a lo-fi LCD Soundsystem, its long-awaited sequel (this fall's Post-Truth and Bird Feeders LP) embraces a slightly more alien sound of paranoid android pop. One that's rooted in months of research and his own alarming firsthand accounts of today's highly toxic internet."I've toured a lot over the years — from small rural towns to big cities," says Lavie, "so I was already familiar with this country's different lifestyles and perspectives. However, it feels like the gap in perspectives and narratives of reality has widened to an insane degree in the past few years. The spectrum of what people consider the 'truth' is this perfect opposite image where down is up, and black is white. It feels like people live in alternate realities while occupying the same physical space."Translating bitter message boards, twisted conspiracy theories, and seemingly endless social media spats into airtight post-everything anthems proved difficult initially — at least until a light bulb went off and Lavie realized that "I am a drummer before anything else. And when I drum, I have a direct line into my emotions."To bottle all of this up beautifully, Lavie slipped into a flow state of seamless drum takes, and layered all sorts of other instruments on top intuitively — a bass line here, a lyric there, a blast of erratic beats and prickly synth parts.... You know, the usual."With this album I felt much more confident to follow my vision without second guessing myself," explains Lavie, "and went deeper into finding exactly what I’d like to express without worrying about how it might be perceived."A big part of this progression was Lavie's recent move to a rural part of Pennsylvania, something his family was already considering in the year leading up to the pandemic. Now that their neighbors are raccoons, foxes, deer, and opossums, Lavie feels both isolated and inspired. He is as likely to lose himself in locked grooves and lean chords as bird feeder breaks and the gnarly textures of an evergreen tree.These new circumstances also pushed him to take a far more DIY approach than ever before. T That goes for everything from self-produced standouts like "Snake Eyes," "Modern Times," and "Are These My Hands" to the album's deceivingly simple cover art. Turns out it was originally drawn by Lavie's young son Oliver and tweaked in Photoshop to represent the two diametrically opposed sides of a stick figure society not unlike ours.To hammer its central point home, Lavie also designed an interactive website that represents the rabbit holes of information we often find ourselves diving into online,whether we realize it or not."The irony with this album," explains Lavie, "was that my obsessions with watching people go down the rabbit hole became my own rabbit hole. In this day and age — with the power of AI and algorithms — each and every one of us can be a potential victim of disinformation and brainwashing.He continues, "Learning how the information we consume molds our perspective made me more understanding and patient towards people with different perspectives. I might get in trouble for saying this, but I am no longer triggered by someone who spits disinformation just because they were misinformed. I see them more as victims."

Category: Arts & Entertainment

Country: United States of America (US)

Currency : USD

Platform: Bandcamp

Technologies used: Fastly CDN