After 24 years and 10 albums, we’re still trying to figure out Trans Am. A statement of misguided complication or exaggeration? Maybe. But the trio—guitarist Phil Manley, bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Nathan Means, drummer Sebastian Thomson—hasn’t exactly made comprehension easy considering its non-linear progression, lack of canned press statements and refusal to submit to expectation. Trans Am’s throw-at-a-dartboard-and-see-what-sticks approach notwithstanding, the band finds itself with a 10th album in its laps. Volume X (Thrill Jockey) leans toward the streamlined sensibility of 2007’s Sex Change, snidely and playfully existing somewhere between krautrock, post-rock, electro-rock, punk rock and other prefix-rock. Trans Am will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on them.
Means: There are a lot of strip clubs in Portland. It’s sort of like pizza in New York. They are everywhere. Some are good. A lot are not. It doesn’t bother me because I don’t go to them. Even the one just around the corner with the sign that says “Hottest Girls Contest.” First, two people have been shot there in the past three years. I don’t go out very much—I definitely don’t want to get shot when I do. Also, I don’t really understand why I’d want to sit around with a bunch of guys and look at girls. Can someone explain this to me?
