The Morning Benders: Big Echo

It's 6 a.m. and I'm driving to the beach for a day of waves. It's dusk on a cool summer day and I just don't feel like driving home, so I don't. The newly released Big Echo by The Morning Benders is the kind of music I want with me on a solo road trip - reminiscent of The Posies, a throw back to surf rock, mellow, but not too mellow. Big Echo   posted by Camas

Ikey Owens talks Free Moral Agents

Prolific keyboardist and songwriter Isaiah "Ikey" Owens is best known for his work with the dramatically hard-around-the-edges band The Mars Volta. His roots in the Long Beach dub and rock scene have birthed a more subtle and fluid side project more in-tune with his beginnings with Sublime, The Long Beach Dub All-Stars and De Facto. Free Moral Agents, originally Owens' solo project, blossomed into a full-fledged band which has found time, between his hectic touring schedule with Volta and his prolific session work, to release a number of LPs and EPs.

Owens, who recently finished the latest Volta tour and moved to Berkeley, found some time to answer a few fanboy questions for us about FMA and its upcoming work.

You've performed with some huge acts -- Volta, Sublime, Long Beach Dub All-Stars, countless others in the Long Beach scene. Do you ever feel that FMA has to break out of the shadow of your previous work?

I don't consider my previous work a shadow, I think of it as a guiding light showing me the wayto my own creativity and expression.... hence Free Moral Agents.

What's next for Free Moral Agents? You've mentioned going back into the studio, do you have a timeframe for completing a new release? Also, do you guys have a label now that GSL is R.I.P.?

We're going to be touring the us with Sage Francis as his back up band in May/June. We'll also be the opener. We're going to be releasing a live record shortly and our studio record we've had finished for a minute. It'll be out on Chocolate Industries soon. We're working on a follow up to that record this spring and should be finished by fall.

"We have a really beautiful understanding in our band."

Volta hasn't exactly had a static line-up, and even you were out for a brief period of time. Now that you're getting some more time to work with FMA, what does your future with Volta and other obligations look like?

I never know what The Mars Volta is going to next. I stopped trying to figure it out a long long time ago.

Free Moral Agents started out as your solo project, so how did your current line-up come to be?

I wanted to play live. Rather than try to re-work my solo record we started writing new and better songs. I've known Mendee for close to 15 years now and we've been making music off and on for ten. I decided to build a band around her that would play loud, groove-oriented music. Everyone just sort of fell into place. Ryan, Reid and Jesse moved to Long Beach from Virginia about eight years ago. I was a big fan of their old band the Luke Warm Quartet which happened to break up right as FMA was forming.

Dennis I've know since jr. high. He was in an amazing band called Suburban Rhythm. I saw Sublime and No Doubt open for his bands back in the day. He introduced me to the fact that there was such a thing as a local music scene. I wanted the bass in FMA to rooted in the dub tradition and I knew Dennis would understand and respect that.

"I don't believe in gathering a group of talented and creative people together only to tell them what to do all the time."

Now that FMA is more of a collective than a solo project, what's the extent of your creative control with the group? Do you oversee every detail, or do you let your group have their moments?

Everyone in our band participates in the creative process. I don't believe in gathering a group of talented and creative people together only to tell them what to do all the time. We all write, we all have input on the direction of the band. They practice while I'm out on tour and write while I'm on tour as well. I handle the production and mixing by myself for the most part but everyone's opinion is a part of my decision making process.

I've outlined a pretty clear vision for what the band is and I've found people who are in agreement with that, and have even enhanced in. There's plenty of room for personal expression within my vision for the band. We have a really beautiful understanding in our band.

You have such an eclectic resume of session work, from metal to dub to R&B -- what do you identify as the stylistic consistency behind your body of work?

I don't think there is a consistency to my work.

You're a prolific collaborator, so are their any future collaborations in store for FMA? Who would you like to work with in the future, either as a solo artist or with FMA?

I did some work for a band called Free the Robots that should be out soon. I'd really like to get NoCanDo on the next FMA record. I'm also producing a singer named Mainey Wilson, she's gonna really kill people. I've also been working with a rock band called Mode.

IKEY'S TOP 5 OF THE 2000S

Dntel - Dumbluck (2007)
Animal Collective - Feels (2005)
OutKast - Stankonia (2000)
TV on the Radio - Dear Science (2008)
Jay Z - Black Album (2003)

Free Moral Agents will be touring with Sage Francis this Summer. Click here to visit their Myspace page.

Marina and the Diamonds - a splash of Bjork with a dash of Kate Bush

Although I won't put pop music at the top of my musical genre preference list, I do like pop music - especially when it's quirky and when the vocals are admirable. The debut album from Marina and the Diamonds, while not faultless, is the first pop album I've been intrigued by in quite awhile. A couple of the tracks (I Am Not a Robot, Hollywood) are admittedly a little kitschy, but for the most part "The Family Jewels" is a creative addition to the female pop vocal world. Marina is very Bjork-esque and is often compared to Kate Bush and Tori Amos. She has a ways to go before she'll live up to those comparisons, but songs and videos like Mowgli's Road and Obsession show a lot of promise. More than anything, I am excited to see a creative (and vocally talented) contribution to the new generation of pop. ~Camas

Stream the new Gorillaz album "Plastic Beach"

Slated for a March 8th release date, the Gorillaz have made their new album Plastic Beach available to stream a week in advance. Clicky clicky.