Featuring two members of Bitch Magnet—Jon Fine (Vineland, Coptic Light, Don Caballero) and Orestes Morfín (Walt Mink, God Rifle, Bored Spies) alongside Simon Kobayashi (smallgang, Hurtling), the far-ranging trio presents its long-in-the-making debut album.
We Contain Multitudes formed in 2017, which means it’s taken a very long time for them to actually release a record. But Jon lives in New York City, Orestes lives in Tucson, Arizona, and Simon lives in the UK in London. Also there was this whole Covid thing, which made getting together in the same room to play music rather complex for a while.
Anyway. Simon met Jon and Orestes when smallgang opened for Bitch Magnet in London in 2011. When Jon and Orestes first discussed forming We Contain Multitudes, they immediately thought of recruiting Simon to play bass, largely because he is a much better guitarist than Jon.
The album is at least partly named for the city pop vocalist Minako Yoshida. (Simon, whose father is Japanese, came up with it.)
“It took us a long time to finish the songs on this album,” admits Jon. “If I’d had to write lyrics, we wouldn’t have finished this record until 2030, at least, and Expert Work would be even more disappointed with us than they already are.”
He continues, more seriously this time: “It was a great gift to be able to build these songs for years, in a kind of clandestine and invisible way. It feels like we’ve been keeping a secret from everyone, and we’re so fucking psyched to share it—finally!—with the world.”
We Contain Multitudes’ music is heavy and intricate. At times, Minako goes far deeper into psychedelic, repetitive, and minimal/maximalist realms than anything these guys’ prior bands have done. Discussing the opening single, ‘Can We Just Not ?’, Jon Fine explains: “You would not believe how many guitar tracks—and how many different guitars—are on “Can We Just Not?”” says Jon about the point of entry for We Contain Multitudes. “Abe Seiferth, who mixed and produced it with us, did an unbelievable job in making it all cohere. The groove that Simon and Orestes came up with kills me—and, God, I love that ending so much.””
The band assembles their songs via a long and painstaking process. Often–though not always–it starts with riffs and parts Jon comes up with. These are shared via the usual long-distance/digital means. Sometimes Jon assembles such riffs into rough drafts of a song, which tend to get substantially reworked (and vastly improved) when the band gathers for intensive stretches of rehearsals. Also, Simon has an annoying knack of casually showing up with excellent bass riffs—or coming up with them on the spot; please, someone, explain to us how this happens—like the one in “We Are All Fucked,” which the band then fashions into songs. And Orestes is always sending Jon and Simon beats to work from.
Minako was recorded by Abe Seiferth and produced by Seiferth and the band. The double LP is coming out this June 25 via Expert Work Records. The limited edition of 300 including 50 on orange vinyl is available for pre-order now from Expert Work Records here. As well from Bandcamp here.
Jon and Orestes first played in a band together in–oh Jesus–1987, when they were both attending Oberlin College. That band was Bitch Magnet, which rapidly became one of the signal underground American bands of its era. Bitch Magnet ultimately released three albums and toured the US and Europe extensively before splitting up in late 1990. Their records were reissued by Temporary Residence in 2011, and Bitch Magnet reunited to tour Europe, Asia, and the US in 2011 and 2012.
After Bitch Magnet, Orestes played in God Rifle, Bored Spies and Walt Mink. Jon formed Vineland and Coptic Light and was a touring guitarist for Don Caballero. At one point, SPIN magazine named Orestes the 50th-best drummer in Alternative Rock, a placement so low that Jon is still pissed off about it.
Jon is also the author of the punk rock memoir Your Band Sucks, which Penguin published in 2015. It won critical acclaim in outlets ranging from The New York Times to Men’s Journal to the Boston Globe to The Atlantic to the Philippine Star. Your Band Sucks concludes with Jon deciding to retire from music at the conclusion of Bitch Magnet’s reunion tours, and to not pursue a new band he’d been discussing with Orestes. (Evidently, Jon changed his mind.)
Simon lives in the UK in London, where he played in smallgang and Splintered Man and where he continues to play bass in Hurtling. His solo album ‘Infinite Sided Die’ came out in 2020.
Thoughts Words Action 