Q&A Remix with Sam and Jaden of Steel Wool

Q&A Remix is a frequent column on IHTOV in which people from all walks of life answer a set of questions about their vinyl collection. Today we welcome Sam and Jaden of the band Steel Wool

Have you ever bought a record just for the artwork? 

SAM: I’m mostly a dollar bin scavenger, but every now and then I allow myself to ball out on a Light In The Attic reissue. I remember when I saw the cover for Memories in Beach House by Seaside Lovers, I was so struck by the artwork that I ordered it without even listening or reading much about it. It’s a painting of a woman floating alone in an endless ocean, with deep-fried magenta clouds on the horizon. The record itself sounds exactly as serene as the cover would suggest. 

What is your most memorable vinyl buying/receiving experience? 

SAM: I saw A. Savage perform at Zebulon last year, and he mentioned between songs that he’d found a forgotten box of copies of the lesser known Parquet Courts’ debut, American Specialties. It’s a great record, but not nearly as widely heard as everything else they’ve put out, because it’s not on most streaming platforms. As soon as his set ended, I made a beeline for the merch table to buy a copy. I’ve always been a huge Parquet Courts fan, so to have the opportunity to buy such a cool, rare record directly from the artist was really special. I asked him to please reissue Denton After Sunset, but I don’t think he will, so I hope he finds another box tucked away in his basement. 

What’s the most treasured album in your collection and why? 

JADEN: Like everyone else my age with an interest in punk, the music of Jeff Rosenstock is pretty fundamental for me. In high school I was stunned when he announced a show at a sports bar in Waterloo, Iowa, about 20 minutes from where I lived at the time. The sound was rough – at that show he actually forgot to play “Nausea”, and there was an unintentional encore when he got back on stage to play it like 5 minutes after the set. But for me it will always be a perfect set – a brush with the spirit of diy that allowed Jeff to play this bar that would be left off the date list of any industry-managed artist of his size. I picked up copies of We Cool and Worry there, complete with signatures and doodles from Jeff.

What one record in your collection would you be most eager to share with new friends?

JADEN: During hangs I always default to my copy of Shintaro Sakamoto’s Dancing With A Phantom. I’m a sucker for melancholy conveyed with a carefree attitude, which makes me predisposed to city pop totally being my jam. It’s a perfect vibe no matter the mood.

Do you have a definitive album of choice for spring, summer, autumn and winter?

SAM:

For spring: I went to college in upstate New York, where the winter really drags its feet, so from March to May, I would listen to Star Stuff, the collaborative effort of Chaz Bundick meets the Mattson 2. Sitting there in my freezing cold, poorly insulated student housing, that record helped transport me to some warmer, imaginary place. 

For summer: The Acetone double LP anthology, 1992-2001, is the perfect set of records to throw on the turntable on a lazy summer evening when you’ve been out in the heat all day and know you’re probably not going to be leaving the house again any time soon.

For fall: We don’t really have seasons here in LA, more like a range of “warm outside” to “very hot outside”, so I’m drawing from east coast memories where the seasonal changes were more pronounced. That said, every fall I return to Built to Spill’s Keep It like a Secret. Something about that record just reminds me of riding my bike over dead leaves.

For winter: Beach House’s Thank Your Lucky Stars. It was released less than two months after Depression Cherry, which kinda got all the glory, so to me, Thank Your Lucky Stars encapsulates the lonesome, moody feel of the wintertime.

What is/are your white whale records, something you have your eye on but haven’t been able to get?

JADEN: I’ve always been more of a record store browser than someone who orders lots of stuff on Discogs, so there’s lots of glaring omissions from my collection. My Iowa heart is ashamed when I look through my collection and see the lack of Slipknot, Stars Hollow, and In Loving Memory. As far as stuff that’s just too expensive though – I’d love to get a copy of Brave Little Abacus’ Masked Dancers on CD, which tends to go for like 150$. One day, maybe.

Who/what got you hooked on records?

JADEN: I was always a CD collector, and I guess when I got to the ninth grade I felt I needed a more mature form of collecting. My older brother set me up with copies of Pavement’s Quarantine the Past and Parquet Courts’ Sunbathing Animal, and it just expanded from there.

What’s your favorite record to listen to on headphones?

SAM: Green by Hiroshi Yoshimura is my go-to self-soothe, solitary listen. It just takes you somewhere else. You can practically feel each note raining down on your skin. 

Tell us a little about your favorite record store

SAM: There’s a lot of record stores here in LA that are near and dear to my heart. Freakbeat Records in Sherman Oaks is the first place I ever drove after getting my driver’s license as a teen, and lately, I’ve been scoring some serious heaters at Healing Force of the Universe, out in Pasadena. But my all-time favorite hidden gem is the bookstore at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Feliz. They have an incredible selection of imports, and I’m a bit of an obi strip fanatic. I got this really rare Gunichi Yamaguchi and His Luana Hawaiians record there, I can’t find anything online about it. Reverse image searching the cover art returns zero results. 

What’s the weirdest record you own? 

SAM: Sound Communication By The Bottlenosed Dolphin by the State University System of Florida Institute for Advanced Study of the Communication Processes. It’s literally just dolphin noises, with interspersed biological information spoken by a very tired-sounding man. Bought it from the dollar bin at Arroyo Records in Highland Park, and I see now that it’s listed for $40-$80 on Discogs, which is kinda hilarious. Do not spend $40 to $80 on this record. 

How has your record collection and appreciation for vinyl evolved over the years, and what has influenced your tastes?

JADEN: I have a lot of records from 2016-2017, because with my high school disposable income I was buying lots of new releases. Buying records is still my favorite way to support new artists, but these days I’m a bit more particular about what gets added, and more likely to pick up oddities I find when flicking through the stacks.

Name the top three vinyls you own that could describe you or your vibe

SAM: Adventure by Television; Pleasure by Pure X; Painful by Yo La Tengo. 

What’s the last record you played?

JADEN: Supper by smog! It’s a pretty underrated one in the Bill Callahan discography, and features some of his hardest rocking moments to date. “Feather By Feather” and “Our Anniversary” are all-timers in the Drag City indie folk space for sure.

Splitting the difference between early post-punk and shoegaze revival, Los Angeles 4-piece Steel Wool rose to insignificance in the summer of 2024. The band, consisting of Sean Lissner (guitar/singing), Jaden Amjadi (bass/screaming), Evan Landi (drums), and Sam Schlesinger (guitar), blends ethereal synthesizers and fuzzed-out guitars to deliver soft-yet-abrasive anthems for sitting in traffic on the 101.

Audio / Video: Bandcamp / YouTube

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