Interview by Chip Copeland
Former Illinois native Joe Pruitt now resides in Brooklyn, NY and although he’s changed locales, he’s still friends with many bands and musicians in the area and members of The Sleeptights, White Moose, and The Clams were featured on his debut album. His one man band Son of Rams has been featured on other music blogs ranging from NPR All Songs Considered to The Hype Machine, Fence Post, and The Styrofoam Drone. While Son of Rams’ sound is firmly rooted in psychedelic pop sounds and experimentation of the 60′s, Joe throws in a fair heaping of Robert Pollard-esque and Flaming Lips-ish moments to help bring the tunes into this era of music; and he’s a nice guy.
Son of Rams - Power Up!!
So, how you been lately?
I’ve been feeling strong and looking masculine. I attribute that too the Gowanus Superfund sludge removal.
How did you make the decision to move from one cultural metropolis to the other? How hard is it to compare the music, art, and culture scenes of these two titans of imagination and ingenuity?
My girlfriend decided to attend grad school in Brooklyn so I followed her out here from Chicago 2 years ago this fall. It was an easy decision because I really didn’t have a lot happening for me in Illinois.
My experience in Chicago was great in some ways but I never really felt like I was part of the arts community and that makes it hard to compare. But I will say that I when I go to see something here I expect it to be pretty good and that wasn’t necessarily the case before.
So you haven’t seen been back in a while to see White Moose?
Well the last show I caught was Brett’s last one. I thought they ruled. If they are playing when I’m in town at the end July I am gonna be very excited.
I was at that show I took photos and everything. Why didn’t we meet in person then?
Don’t know? What do you look like?
What I look like is not important unless you like chiseled granite. Back to you man. Brett’s an awesome guitarist and everyone should check out his current band The Clams.
I was actually a member of the clams for the first few shows!
That’s cool, Chris, Spencer, and Brett actually played on the Son of Rams record. What was it like working with those guys?
On the record Chris played drums on a song called “this wisdom” and Spencer helped with the recording tech stuff and provided the glamour. We worked on another song but the tambourine was too wild to use it. I take full responsibility.
A few of the songs were written with Brett when we were in a group together called The Sleeptights. He is good at beefing things up.
I hope he’s good at that, now that he’s attending culinary school. Speaking of glamour; Spencer’s hair is pretty sexy isn’t it?
Spenser’s hair has only improved over the years.
How has the response been overall to the last record?
I think people have liked the record all right. I have done very little to get it out and played zero shows under the name so it is hard to say.
You were featured last december on NPR’s All Songs Considered Second Stage blog. Did that bring some new fans to the table?
The NPR thing was cool but not very helpful. I have gotten more notice for Son of Rams from playing with Family Trees and the 7″ we put out this summer.
I just checked that video out, good stuff. It reminds me of a drug fueled Russ Meyer-esque video ala The Carrie Nations. Who else is in the band?
FAMILY TREES no one will ever know from amanda finn on Vimeo.
So, Ryan Trott plays guitar, sings the lead parts and writes all of the music. Amanda Finn plays drums and I’m on bass.
Your stuff really harkens back to that time period between 1967-1972. All the bands you’ve been in seem to have a strong link to 60s pop and Garage sound. What draws you to that sound or asthetic; who are some of your influences? Are there any bands that are making music currently that you really enjoy as well?
I guess from the start I was always into bands from the 60′s and 70′s because it seemed sort of rebellious to disregard whatever the current music was. In the 90′s it was harder to find underground music apart from a few things on BCR or something. I still listen to older stuff because I respect the craftsmanship and I think of that as a time when rock bands were less touchy feely and were able to balance being both cerebral and manly.
Todd Rundgren - A Wizard A True Star
Todd Rundgren’s “A Wizard A True Star” is awesome, “Piper at the Gates of Dawn”, Big Star, “Bee Thousand”, Cheap Trick “Cheap Trick”, Led Zeppelin, Elvis Costello, Black Sabbath, Flaming Lips, that sort of stuff. At one time I was listening to a lot of jazz from the 50′s and 60′s. Also the super obvious stuff like Beatles, Beach Boys, Beatles solo stuff, and Bob Dylan. Grunge bands probably.
The last album I heard that really got to me was Jay Reatard’s “Blood Visions”. But I like one song off the new MGMT album, the song “Tightrope” by Janelle Monae is cool, one song by Here We Go Magic, Tame Impala’s new album, I heard one of the new Wavves songs and liked it a lot, that band Girls is pretty good, “freeway mind” by Kurt Vile is really nice. Is this getting dull yet?
No, not at all. It’s funny that you mention Todd Rundgren as he is possibly one of the most underrated guys out there. Talk about craftsmanship; have you ever heard his album “Faithfull” before? He replicated classic psychedelic songs like Strawberry Fields Forever and Good Vibrations using the same studio techniques employed in the original recordings.
Sounds like a good one. I’m gonna check that out.
Are there any other bands in your scene that you like? How are the venues where you’re at? The good, the bad, and the ugly please.
Sure, we’ve played with some good groups with Family Trees like the Beets, K-Holes, Treasure, and Total Slacker. Of course there are a lot of pretty well known bands here too but I don’t know if we are really in the same scene or circles. The venues here are really cool for the most part. Like Death By Audio, Glasslands, Union Pool is pretty fun, Shea Stadium maybe. You know, we played some shows in Virginia over the summer and Roanoke’s music situation was really impressive. It was a small scene but everyone was really energetic. We played with Eternal Summers on few shows and they were so awesome.
So what’s next for you, Son of Rams, and Family Trees? You guys coming out to the Midwest on tour or anything? New material coming out soon?
Well, I’m working on another Son of Rams record right now and it should be done this summer as long as I have a little time and another Family Trees recording is probably going to be done before the end of the year. I’m also working on a hip hop project with a friend of mine that might turn out to be pretty awesome but we are only one song into it so far. Besides that I have another group that is going to be playing its first show in August. That one is with some really talented friends of mine one of whom has a really good group called The Silverstate, one who plays bass for Clem Snide, and another dude who has a grammy. We sound pretty pro.
Awesome., so that’s about it I suppose. Where can everybody keep up with Son of Rams, You and all your other projects? Anything else you want to plug?
They can check out http://sonoframs.com and dowload the album and new single for free. I guess people can email directly and ill get them on a mailing list or something of that sort. jlutherpruitt@gmail.com
Thanks for doing this. The next time you’re in town let me know and I’ll buy you a beer or a coke or something.
Thanks chip!
