Pitchfork

Gang Gang Dance aren't a band. They're a gang. "I just think that the term 'band' is very limiting," multi-instrumentalist Brian DeGraw says. "It suggests that you solely make music, play shows, and maybe make a video here and there. But I feel it should be different. I like the word 'band' in its non-musical definition...like a 'band' of outsiders. Something that refers more to the idea of a group of people rather than a group of musicians. And if said group of people happen to be passionate and creatively inclined, then I see no reason why they shouldn't be producing things outside of music. We're a gang more than a band...a very non-violent gang who are very interested in exploring all there is to explore artistically."

Thus, rather than release a new album to coincide with their European tour (which kicks off today in France), the band is putting out the DVD Retina Riddim via the Social Registry. It will be in stores in December, and available at the band's merch table in the meantime.

Created by DeGraw, an accomplished visual artist, the 30-minute Retina Riddim is "50% film and 50% remix album." DeGraw explains, "I took lots of pieces of music from our past records and dragged them into Final Cut, then just began chopping them up, taking a bass sound or a drum hit or things like that and creating a new track out of those sounds. Slowed them down or sped them up, then maybe added a random vocal from a live recording, or bits of live sound from tour footage, things like that. Then when I had a finished audio track I started dropping in video. Images that I felt were equivalent to the sounds. That formed the basis of the film.

"Then I began to add more over top of that, dropping in bits of live footage over top, pieces of interviews, footage of friends that we encountered on tour. The pace of the film is really fast and choppy. At times I think it reads a bit like an exercise in Final Cut, lots of looping and guilty pleasures. Then towards the end it opens up into a straighter piece of footage from a show we played in Tokyo.

"So it begins very hyper and ends very trance-like and slow, which I like because I feel that it's quite opposite of what films often try to do creating a long buildup into a climactic ending. This one goes backwards, starts with a bang then sort of slows down to a snail's pace."

Although there are no plans to release a companion soundtrack album, DeGraw says, "I do wonder if people will put it on the TV and turn up the volume while they clean the house or something. I would like that."

The DVD will also come with a short film by the band's friend Oliver Payne, featuring "footage he shot on tour with us in Australia and the U.S. a few years ago," says DeGraw. "Actually the bonus track might outweigh my film in terms of quality. But that's fine because that's very backwards as well. I like things backwards."

Gang Gang Dance is currently working on a new album, but DeGraw says he and his gang-mates would like to continue to stretch the definition of what a "band" can do. "I would love to write a play and have that be our next 'record'. Or design a car. Or open a restaurant. All somehow tied into the idea of Gang Gang Dance's music.

"I also want to start a GGD gorilla reservation at some point."

"I feel a very strong connection to gorillas and chimpanzees. I feel like they possess a purity of emotion that humans have lost somewhere along the path of evolution. Primates have such an honest way about them...their movements, expressions, the way they focus on things, their curiosity. They have a nature that is enviable in many ways. I always fantasize the idea that chimps actually do know how to speak English, and that if they wanted to they could construct a modern technological civilization, but they look at what we have done, how we have fucked up so many pure and beautiful things, and they just all make a pact to stay somewhat primitive, to keep existing in a more natural state. They sit back and laugh amongst themselves at the ridiculous things that humans do."

Gang Gang Dance tour dates:

08-14 Hyeres, France - Midi Festival
08-17 Geneva, Switzerland - Usine
08-18 Dudigen, Switzerland - Bad Bonn
08-19 Hasslet, Belgium - Pukklepop Festival
08-21 Malmo, Sweden - Festival
08-22 Gothenburg, Sweden - TBA
08-24 Copenhagen, Denmark - Escho
08-25 Arhaus, Denmark - Ljud
08-26 London, England - TDK festival
08-28 London, England - Luminere
08-29 Brighton, England - TBA
08-31 Dublin, Ireland - The Hub
09-01 Manchester, England - Zion
09-02 Leeds, England Faversham
09-03 Brooklyn, NY - McCarren Pool *
10-27 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle #
10-28 Minneapolis, MN - Walker Arts Center
10-29 Milwaukee, WI - Shank Hall
10-31 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace

* with Spank Rock
# with Dogme 95