Nate Cook and Josh Lee are Sick of Being Nice

Jenn Cohen | May 1, 2013 | 0 Comments

by Jenn Cohen

Denver’s Nate Cook (the Yawpers), and Josh Lee (Eldren) are sick of people being nice, so they’ve formed a partnership, a “cross-genre, unholy marriage of men,” they say collectively, laughing. “It’s more than just playing shows together,” says Lee.

“We started talking about doing a podcast together in a general effort to speak up [about the music scene], and hopefully inspire musicians to raise the bar a little bit,” says Cook. “There is this glad-handing element to the music scene, that you feel like you have to kiss the other band members’ babies in the hope they’ll give you a show.”

Eldren and the Yawpers are playing many shows together as of late and while it’s not your typical partnership for a billing, that’s precisely why they’re doing it. “There’s no one on the planet who would go to an Eldren show and then to a Yawpers show and say, ‘Oh, those are similar bands,” says Cook. “They are totally different. We put on psychedelic, prog rock country shows,” says Cook. “Why the f*ck not?”

Concerning criticism, Cook says, “I’ve gotten bad reviews from every side of the board . . . bring it on! It crushed me for a few days, then I came to certain realizations about what they were talking about, and it created a desire to get better. If you’re above reproach, as an artist, then get the f*ck out of the game.

“There’s a movement in the music scene at large, kind of a pontification of musical identity to the point where people are playing the most white-washed pedantic bullsh*t you can imagine,” says Cook. “A lot of that boils down to [the fact that] there’s not a lot of criticism. If you’re in a band that’s trying to make it in the Denver music scene, you would never say to another band, ‘Hey, you guys weren’t that good tonight.’ And we (Yawpers and Eldren) try and do that with each other. There’s this whole attitude of just being nice to the point that it doesn’t allow for any growth or inspire people to be more creative or interesting, or more honest. If you continue to let shitty art to be represented because it’s cheaper, then you cheapen the scene; it demeans the true value of music.

“There has to be some sort of scale, you’re either above it or you’re not. There’re plenty of weekend warriors out there who watered down the music scene to the point that it’s hard to get a $600 guarantee,” Cook continues, “and you’ve spent 30-40 hours a week practicing, nine months on the road, six months recording a record, and then you go out and play a show–you should be able to make a living off of it, if you’re good enough.

“The venues need to change their attitudes about it, too,” he says. “Think about the hi-dive. The hi-dive has a built-in crowd because they’re exclusionary; they get good bands to play there, so people go there to see good music. Cervantes Other side, on the other hand, has no built-in crowd because any jerk-off who is willing to play for $80 for three hours can get in there.”

They hope to stir up a little bit of controversy, get people talking, and angry, even, if it means that bands will be more selective of who they play with, so as to not saturate the scene with the same thing over and over. “What happened to the Jim Morrisons?” asks Lee. “What happened to all the fanatics who actually brought rock and roll to what it was?”

“If you think about it, every great scene that has ever really been burgeoning has always been a scene of exclusion,” says Cook. “Scenes of inclusion generally tend not to be good scenes. Scene of exclusion tend to have really strong ethos attached to them, really stringent musical ideas, and that’s where you see these breakouts of punk, grunge, hardcore—they’re scenes of exclusion.

“It’s more about creating awareness. There is a lot of good music out there, music is not as subjective as you think it is,” says Lee. “Good food is good food. You will feel it when you eat it. You might not prefer it over everything else, but there’s no way you can deny that this plate in front of you is the most amazing style of that cuisine.” And if you don’t like? “Then you should tell someone.”

“Unsolicited criticism would be borderline asshole behavior, which is definitely not the goal,” says Cook. “There is a real lack and need for honesty in the scene that doesn’t exist.” Adds Lee, “We’re tired of musicians being nice, just to kiss ass. There is 80% marketing and 20% productivity because we’re not speaking up; we’re not doing our job.” Adds Cook, “If the end goal isn’t to make art, then you’re really just a corporate piece of shit cocksucker.” Feel free to comment; in fact, bring it on!

Upcoming Shows: May 2, Oskar Blues; May 4, Shine Boulder; May 17, Stoney’s Bar & Grill

Online: yawpers.com and eldrenmusic.com