Javelin Merges the Past with the Sound of the Future

Every band has a creation myth, and Javelin is no different. “I guess the mythic story is that we started our band when we were 11,” says Tom Van Buskirk, one half of the indie rock band he and cousin George Langford formed in 2005 after over a decade practicing together as kids growing up in Providence, Rhode Island. “It just took us 14 years to learn how to work together.”

Through creating mix tapes and fiddling with synthesizers to Langford playing in jam bands while Van Buskirk deejayed sets in sweaty basements in Rhode Island and Brooklyn, the two honed their craft and developed what would become their signature style of turning found and familiar sounds into catchy, danceable beats.

“George was pretty damn eclectic as a kid,” noted Van Buskirk. “I was more of a snob, growing up on the Beatles and classical music. Like, I didn’t get into Nirvana until after “MTV Unplugged” came out. I’m always late to the party.”

Living and working in Brooklyn began to inspire their sounds when they moved to Bushwick and Langford started to scavenge old 90s dance hall records on Flatbush Avenue. The discordant sounds of subway performers drumming with sticks on concrete and rhyming on trains, as well as early associations of Madonna and Talking Heads, came to influence their sound, often as a referential jarring of memory.

“I love making music that has flaws and human fingerprints all over it,” said Langford. “There’s also that grey area where you can’t tell what is a sample, although it leaves you wanting to say, ‘Hey, I did that!’”

The duo’s appreciation for the golden age of every musical genre imaginable is evident in their penchant for layering their own vocals and instrumentals – kazoos, synthesizers and drums – on top of samples they’ve foraged from old dollar bin cassette tapes. In 2009, their self-released CD, “Jamz n’ Jemz,” came out to become an Internet sleeper hit and earned them a description as cut-and-paste mixtape enthusiasts. Then came their full-length album “No Mas” on David Byrne’s label, Luaka Bop.

The album was met with critical acclaim and showcased their talent for highlighting and reinventing the familiar. The tracks were also notable for stripping away some of the lo-fi charm of their earlier hits.

Asked to describe their evolving style, the pair agree that they sound like “a messed up version of the radio.”

“[A fan once described it] as synesthetic music, because it’s not really about words, but about sounds with a cinematic and visual appeal,” Van Buskirk said. Langford chimed in that he “like[s] the idea of mutated radio, the kind of pop music that would happen now if x, y and z happened in the past.”

Whether they are in a basement or on stage at venues such as the Brooklyn Bowl, though, Javelin puts on a jubilant live act – the energy is high and the audience can’t help but be drawn into the experience of frenetic dancing, pulsating beats and projections of psychedelic art and disco lights flashing over everyone in the room.

There are songs where van Buskirk doesn’t sing at all, instead blowing a kazoo into a microphone, while Langford jumps around drumming the synthesizers and a snare drum. Live instruments are played, with trippy background visuals.

“The first time we played [at the Brooklyn Bowl], I was very aware of the bowling happening, but I felt like it added an absurdist element, which I liked,” said Van Buskirk. “[Now] I honestly don’t even think about it. Shows are always so well-attended in Brooklyn. I feel like there’s a lot of love for us here, almost like playing at a hometown. Every time we come out, I feel like it’s a relationship we keep building with our Brooklyn audience, it feels like a real event.”

Javelin headlined the Bowl’s latest Local By Local event, which brings together local goods and businesses such as Brooklyn Brewery, art zine, WorkingClassMagazine, and BKBooth photobooth, and Berl’s Brooklyn Poetry Shop.

These types of collaborations between local collectives and individuals is how Javelin produced their latest project, “Canyon Candy,” a psychedelic western album-cum-audiovisual collaboration with Brooklyn filmmaker/director Mike Anderson.

The project culminated in a site-specific installation at the Clocktower Gallery and included the Javelin soundscape. When asked about the collaboration, both members of the band found it to be an incredible project.

“We were friends with Mike, and thought he was a genius,” said Langford. “We had these two ideas bubbling up, and we put them together and it took [shape]. When a bunch of people get excited about an idea, it just comes together. Almost to the point where it felt like it wasn’t really just our project. It was our music, and we were heavily involved, but it became bigger than that.”

“It was kind of like a barn-raising,” added Van Buskirk.

Javelin has finished touring with Sleigh Bells and is hard at work on their new album, which is due to come out some time this year.

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