Philadelphia Weekly

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Washington D.C. mainstay Ian Svenonius has lived many lives, from DJ to essayist to frontman of bands like the Make-Up and Weird War. Now, more than 20 years after forming the influential Dischord Records act Nation of Ulysses as a socialism-spouting teenager, he’s touring behind his new band, Chain And The Gang, and their new album, Down With Liberty … Up With Chains, on K Records

Talking from the tour via cell phone in a drowsy deadpan that’s almost Warholian, Svenonius explains that the name says it all. “It was inspired by the sounds of the men working on the chain gang,” he offers, referencing the classic Sam Cooke tune. “I started thinking what a great analogy that is to the group … working for nothing, their destinies chained together. I was gonna do a spoken-word record, because some of my favorite records are spoken-word with musical accompaniment. That’s the way it started.”

There’s still a fair bit of spoken-word on Chain and the Gang’s debut – all delivered in a combination of beatnik incantation and gospel-inspired revelry that should be familiar to any fan of Svenonius’ – and the music is often sparse, spooky, and rickety to the point of collapse. There are also finger snaps, sultry whispers, spine-tingling reverb, call-and-response vocals, and vintage organ, all of which gives the album a time-capsule vibe and distinguishes it from the current flood of digitally recorded music.

“It’s definitely primitivism,” admits Svenonius. “And that plays into the title. It wasn’t made on a laptop. It was made on tape on an old [sound]board. We were working with what we had. The record was pretty much made spontaneously. It was basically made with a gang of collaborators, and I was the lead chanter, guiding them into this thing. It was sort of a party, making do with what we had [and] banging on things.”

His primary collaborators on the record were singer Sarah Pedal and players Brett Lyman, and Fred Thomas. They’re along for the tour, and also providing the backing for K Records founder Calvin Johnson’s latest group, the Hive Dwellers. Svenonius likens the “house band” concept to that of Stax Records’ glory days. “It’s like if, in the 1960s, you went to see Otis Redding,” he says, “which in this day and age, economically [makes sense].”

Down With Liberty … Up With Chains may be Svenonius’ umpteenth record, but it’s instantly one of his most memorable. Befitting its spoken-word roots, there’s a real chattiness – he starts one song by asking the band, “What do you wanna talk about?” – and the cucumber-cool frontman dishes with equal keenness on hotel parties, the idea of reparations, the immortal band interview, online trash talk, and the value of a dollar. He also conjures garage-y grit with songs about cemeteries and “cave girls.”

It’s weird doing a phone interview with someone whose band wrote a track encapsulating the awkwardness of phone interviews, but Svenonius says “Interview With…” is more about the classic function of a rock band than mocking journalists. “It’s not against interviews,” he notes. “It’s just that the interview of the group is such a central aspect of rock and roll. It’s the group holding forth in the way that groups do. Groups are very political, in the sense of being like politicians. They have to say things that are easily translatable, easily digestible, and there has to be the pretense of it always being new or different than the tens of thousands of competitors.”

As for the standout “Trash Talk,” it was inspired more by pro sports than feuds on message boards, he says. The grimly funny “Deathbed Confession,” meanwhile, imagines the final admissions of guilt on behalf of some of history’s most infamous conspiracy theories, from the JFK assassination to faking the moon landing.

“That’s all about how these guys, who are these backroom agents, always have to spill their guts when they kick the bucket because their ego demands it,” explains Svenonius. “These people who were sensibly sworn to secrecy … suddenly they’re telling tales of their involvement in these things, whether you choose to believe them or not. Because everybody wants to feel central to history.”

Has living in D.C. all his life given Svenonius more insight into that? “Well, y’know, it’s a huge industry, between the Pentagon, the NSA, [and] the CIA,” he agrees. “You do always meet people whose parents work for these institutions. It’s political so it affects all of us. Outsiders [might] come in and say, ‘Oh, these people are obsessed with the secret dealings of the political class.’ I’m immersed. I’m like a fish in water, unaware of the water.”

Besides fronting Chain and the Gang and hosting the online interview show Soft Focus, Svenonius is working on a new project called Publicist with Trans Am and Weird War drummer Sebastian Thompson. As someone who’s been in so many bands, he still finds it interesting which ones connect with a wider audience, whether during the band’s lifespan or later. “One might be popular while you’re doing it and then kind of forgotten, or vice versa,” he says. “I don’t think it has that much to do with the group. It has more to do with the context. As things change around you, people’s relationship to what you’re doing changes.”

With so many cult bands reuniting in the past decade, some fans might be hoping for a reincarnation of Nation of Ulysses or the Make-Up. Don’t count on it. “It’s tempting,” begins Svenonius. “You think about Iggy Pop and he gets to play all his best songs from his whole career. What an enviable position. But I think laziness would probably kick in, where you’d have your crowd-pleasers and you wouldn’t really have to try to create a new narrative and a new set of kick-ass songs. It seems like a real formula for apathy.”

As for bands like the Pixies capitalizing on their after-the-fact fame, Svenonius says in his characteristically dry and cutting way, “Yeah, I saw the Pixies when they were around in the beginning. They were really boring. I wish somebody had asked me. I could have told them how boring it was going to be.”

Chain And The Gang. Mon., April 27, 7pm. $10. With The Hive Dwellers + Mahjongg. The Barbary, 951 Frankford Ave. 267.765.5210. www.r5productions.com