Crafty Shopping with Out Hud Issue #25

We gave two of the band’s members $50 to make them holler — this time at Chicago’s Intonation Music Festival

By Amber Drea
Published: September 1st, 2005 | 2:33pm

The usual drill for this page is that we give folks $50 to splurge on records. For this edition, we invited Out Hud’s singer-keyboardist Phyllis Forbes and cellist Molly Schnick to participate in the shopping spree, while they were in Chicago to perform at Intonation Music Festival in mid July.

Their faces lit up when we informed the Brooklyners — who have spent almost half their lives playing music together — that, if they wanted to, they could bend the rules to shop at DEPART-ment, an extension of Intonation. DEPART-ment is the DIY version of a department store, which offers handmade accessories, clothing, and home décor.

The first stop was the section for purses and jewelry. “I always buy bags,” Forbes said. “But I feel bad because I only can use one at a time. You don’t need that many.” Schnick’s vice is knitting — she works at a SoHo store that sells expensive yarns and fabrics. “When I have more money, I’ll usually buy a $50 skein of yarn made of pink silk,” she said. “And I won’t do anything with it — just look at it and squish it.”

Forbes’ only hobby outside of Out Hud is just as decadent. “I like to bake — sweets mostly,” she said. “Cakes are my specialty.” Having been in punk bands with Schnick since the age of 14, Forbes recently realized that what was once a youthful pastime has now become her career. “It’s dawned on me that music is what I’ve always tried to do,” she said. “It’s weird.”

Out Hud’s second full-length, Never Let Us Speak of It Again, continues the quartet’s spirit of early ’80s disco tribal funk, but this time Forbes added vocals. “We’d always been instrumental, and lyrics were another way to add depth to the songs,” she explained. “Singing didn’t seem like that much of a leap.”

Though some of the subject matter is quite straightforward, (“Dear Mr. Bush, ... Fuck You, Out Hud”), others are harder to pinpoint. Lines such as “If it’s us / It fits us / It fits us to die” or “He’s obtuse up there / She’s up to something” are more like word games than coherent ideas. When asked the meaning behind her cryptic imagery, Forbes just shrugged and said, “I can’t remember.” The inspiration for “The Stoked American,” Schnick recalled, came from the band’s first tour in Europe. “They weren’t sure if we were pro-Bush,” she said, laughing. “There’s the ugly Americans and then there’s stoked Americans. We were like, ‘You have sausages!’”

And who wouldn’t love a band that fuses house beats and psychedelic synths with soaring cello, angular guitar, and thumping bass? Hundreds of fans dancing and sweating in the hot mid-afternoon sun can’t be wrong.

PHYLLIS FORBES’ SHOPPING LIST
1. a barrette wrapped in black ribbon with an orange birdie attached. “If I was crafty, I wouldn’t pay $4 for this.” Go ahead and splurge — it’s on Venus!
2. a hexagonal white lantern with black bamboo pattern. Only $10!
3. a Hand Maid peppermint lip balm and lavender oatmeal soap, both acceptable alternatives to the twice-as-costly romance-novel light-switch guards.

MOLLY SCHNICK’S SHOPPING LIST
1. hoop earrings made from wound copper and black wire
2. skull knitting needles. “I hope they don’t take them away from me at the airport.”