S.Lo on March 27th, 2019

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A traveler never falls short of inspiration after exploratory journeys, and the same can be said of Don De Vore (Ink & Dagger, The Icarus Line, Amazing Baby, Giant Drag, Sick Feeling, Souls She Said and Lilys) and Reggie Debris in their “Rebuild Babylon” project, the music end of which is Collapsing Scenery. Accustomed to interdisciplinary work after setting up gallery installations, the pair makes their live music shows a completely immersive experience. It’s all an offshoot of their travels to understand a conflicted and often misunderstood world outside the confines of their usual aesthetic and geographic circles, being L.A. and New York bicoastals.

Their latest single, “Bush Mama Blues,” is the first teaser from their debut album, “Stress Positions,” due out on June 28 via Metropolitan Indian. The result of the fact-finding mission for this song is a trip-hop tango tangled with modular synth screeches with Debris expounding, “It’s a slow-motion ethnic cleanse / Clean out the gutter / Keep your lines and the rubbish in bins / Now everything’s the right color / Make sure they’ve cleared a route / They’re free to roam / They turn a prison inside out and they call it home… Every time you raise your fist / The ceiling just gets lower / As soon as you need something fixed / The system just moves slower.”

As artists, they strive to remain independent technically, logistically and topically. “Playing in a traditional rock venue in any given city is my idea of hell. We want to play in basements, warehouses, garages — and traveling with our own sound system, power supply and visuals, that’s exactly what we do. Not being beholden to club, promoters or the existing way of doing things is important. We’re 100% self-contained,” says Debris. As such, they also haven’t limited themselves in travel. De Vore provides an example, “How can you truly comment on, say, the Israel-Palestine conflict unless you go out and talk to people there? We like to go to new places and put boots on the ground to speak. Travel makes the word smaller and is essential to expanding the creative mind.” It’s much food for thought and music that makes one think and question the structures of both song and societies.

||| Stream: “Bush Mama Blues”

||| Live: Collapsing Scenery plays a free show tonight (21-plus) at La Cita, with NGHTCRWLR, Otherr and S280F opening; a benefit show at 1720 for Project Q on April 28 (with Planet B, Egrets on Ergot, Moisture Boys and Bustié); and Zebulon on May 8 opening for Seedy Films, with Woundz and Luke Jenner (tickets). 

||| Previously: Live at the Echo, “Straight World Problems”