As long as indie-pop darlings the Vivian Girls were still active, bassist Katy Goodman’s other band, La Sera, seemed relegated to “side project” territory. But since the Vivians’ official breakup in 2014, Goodman has expanded her ambitions. Her husband, guitaristTodd Wisenbaker, is now a full member and co-songwriter in La Sera, and friend Ryan Adams produced their latest record, “Music for Listening to Music To.”We talked to Goodman about the record’s sound and its amusing title. The first song on your new album, “High Notes” has a little country vibe, in the music and the video. In the indie world, it seems like country is still the only genre it’s still cool to not like. People will say, “I like everything but country.” [Laughs] That was a very common AOL profile back in the day. The only real country thing about [“High Notes”] is a couple of the guitar twangs. I think people think it’s a little more country that it probably actually is. But I’m all for it — I like country, and so does Todd. One thing I heard on a lot of songs on this album is a Smiths influence, which you’ve said was important on your last album as well. With you and Todd now writing the songs together, you seem to have a Morrissey-Marr thing going on. This time around, we wanted to have less layers—guitar overdubs and stuff. So what Todd is playing in all the songs is very acrobatic and full, and very Marr-esque—non-stop guitar shredding. I think that’s what makes the songs Smiths-y. It is a dance between the melody and the guitar. I really liked the title of the record. Your press release said it basically just means “this is just music.” Could you elaborate on that?
It’s a play on old records — like, for example, the other day I found one on the Internet called “Music to Strip to Your Husband To”. So we thought it’d be funny to have it just be like, “Music for music’s sake.” It’s also specifically not music for licensing or music for commercials—because I feel like in this day and age, there are so many other reasons why there’s so much music. And this is not for that. This was not made to be re-mixed—nothing against that, but this record is not for that. This record is just musicrecorded for music’s sake. If you go:
Boston New York
May 10 at 9 p.m.
Great Scott
1222 Commonwealth Ave.,
$12, 18+, 800-745-3000
www.ticketmaster.com
May 11 at 8 p.m.
Market Hotel
1140 Myrtle Ave., Brooklyn
$13-$15, all ages, 877-987-6487
www.ticketfly.com
La Sera’s Katy Goodman chats ‘Music for Listening To Music To’
Julia Brokaw
