 I was sitting in traffic hell, like all other Austin residents, when 101X played The Lemurs. A recent Homegrown Live participant, I found myself shaking my ass in my car seat. Really. I was shaking it. These guys really got down.
Like an American cousin to recent bands like Franz Ferdinand, The Lemurs aren't afraid to get you moving. "That's not by accident at all," Mitch Billeaud says [in a recent Dallas Observer article]. "I got sick of going to Emo's and watching shoegazer rock. I go out because I want to walk away and feel like, 'That was so fun, I'm glad I got my heart rate up.' For some reason in the indie-rock world we're thrown in, there's a risk of being disingenuous if you try to get people to move and enjoy themselves on that super-visceral, physical level, but that's the intention. We want people to come and dance."
With an album coming in September, the word has already gotten out about The Lemurs. They recently licensed their song "My Definition" to Toyota (go to the Digital City Guide and select Austin), a move which helped them complete their album. They have some buzz working in the press here in Texas. I see a very bright future ahead for them.
Mitch was gracious enough to find some time in his busy schedule to talk to us. Here's what he had to say:
Q: There is a slight reference to 1980s bands in your sound. Is that intentional?
- It's always hard to set influences ahead of or apart from the instrumentation and arrangement when we think over what we're doing. The analog synth is definitely an important sound to our band (which I'm guessing is where that impression comes from), but we don't use it to be nostalgic as an end. I mean, we like those tones, but want to be the inventors of the harmonic, melodic and rhythmic content of our music. It's very important for us to stay balanced and not pay more homage to other bands than to develop something that's not been done the same way that we are doing it. It seems like that is where a chance for being creative comes in, and we don't want to miss it.
Q: Do you feel Austin has lost its "music town" OOMPH or are you feeling the love from your fans and the venues here?
- Hard to say, because we are just to close to the scene and far too biased for anyone who reads this to buy my arguments. I can say this..... SoundTeam, What Made Milwaukee Famous, The Arm, VoxTrot, Octopus Project, Pompeii, The Lord Henry, Ghostland Observatory, Spoon, Maneja Beto, Cue, etc. There is just a very long list of excellent bands who believe its worth their time, so any lack of love we might feel is more an indication of the quality of music that WE play, not of the town. There are people here with impeccable taste, and we figure that if we make music well (which is a loaded word), people will show up to watch it.
Q: What do you want your audience to get out of watching The Lemurs perform?
- I've tried 30 ways to answer this question and failed miserably every time. So, I'm just going to dismiss it as an impossible question.
Q: What inspires you as a group to create music?
- Passion for the technical and artistic components of it. Other bands who seem to be doing it right (by our account). German Porn.
Q: Has your association with 101X Homegrown Live helped you?
- I don't know yet. It seems to take a long time before you have a solid understanding of what one particular experience or show does for you, good or bad. We enjoyed it a lot, and they have been a very helpful and supportive station to us, so from that end, it's been a complete success. They've been helping a lot of Austin bands like us, and that is more than many stations can claim.
Q: Do you want to be signed by a major label or does the independent route taken by bands like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah suit you?
- For now, we'll be taking the beginning of the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah route. If we can pull off the full journey, we'd obviously be very pleased. They put out a record. People had access if they wanted it. They let reviewers and the public determine its worth. They reacted to the public's demand. Now, they can do what they want, and have all the leverage they need in terms of a label. That seems natural to me, and the best way, given our circumstances, to try to proceed. All that said, if we got some crazy Major Label offer that gave us creative license and ample financial push behind our music, we'd sell out like Milli Vanilli, but nobody here is holding their breath or buying a new weave.
Q: Where can folks buy or hear your music?
- They can hear 3 tracks on myspace.com/thelemurs, then when it comes out, we'll have it in as many record stores as would want it on their shelves (Austin ones for sure), and we'll probably sell it at sparrowhead.com (we just haven't worked out the details yet. It will be released the first week of September.
Check out The Lemurs at their web site or MySpace.
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Bands to Watch 
