Music
19 Oct 09

The Man Don't Give A Puck

This year’s MGMT? Hockey would prefer to think of themslves as a cross between LCD Soundsystem and The Strokes.

Sitting in a dimly lit backstage corner of Dublin’s Academy, Hockey’s Ben Grubin is wondering what the hell has happened to his keyboard-player. “He got an infection in his hand and when we reached Ireland it had swelled up and looked really unpleasant. He’s in hospital now... somewhere in Dublin. I guess he’s okay. We’re not sure exactly where he’s at.”

If he didn’t know better, Grubin might think Hockey were cursed when it comes to Ireland.
“Our first show in Whelan’s – that didn’t go very well. We weren’t happy with the performance. Oxegen wasn’t so great either. So we really wanted to make up for it this time. And now we’re down our keyboard-player.”
Grubin is a laid-back sort but he gets a little antsy when you suggest to him that, alongside sometime touring mates Passion Pit, Hockey are shaping up to be this year’s answer to MGMT. Honestly, he says, he can’t understand why people would detect a likeness.
“When people say we’re like The Strokes jamming with LCD Soundsystem, that’s a comparison I can understand. The MGMT thing – okay, I wear a bandana on stage but it’s kind of lazy and suggests to me that people don’t understand where we’re coming from. If someone says we’re a MGMT-type band, I can only think that they haven’t listened to our music.”
Though Hockey are a ridiculously youthful ensemble – Ben is 24 going on 12 – they’ve actually been around the block a few times. In a previous incarnation, Grubin and guitarist Brian White were signed to Sony on a development deal. When they failed to write any potential ‘hits’, however, things came to an end.
“That did make us cynical about the music business for a while,” he admits. “It kind of opened our eyes really. It takes your naivety away. Of course, from another perspective it might be the best thing that ever happened to us. It made us battle-hardened.”
At the time, the duo were living in LA. Upon splitting with Sony however, they decided on a shift of scenery - so they moved to the depths of Washington State, setting up in the city of Spokane.
“It was a big cultural leap for us. In the US, you have the coasts where people are relatively liberal. Then you’ve got the middle – an America that is religious and culturally conservative. That rubbed us up the wrong way. That’s where our song ‘Curse This City’ comes from. I was sick of Spokane and one day, in rehearsals, I said ‘Man, I’m gonna curse this city.’”
Grubin actually grew up in preppy upper West Side Manhattan, though he seems a bit fazed when asked if he enjoyed a pampered, Gossip Girl upbringing.
“It was pretty normal,” he insists. “There weren’t any famous people living on my block. When I go back to New York now, I’m struck by how huge it is. It seems to have grown when I’m away.”
Maybe that’s why he feels so at home in Hockey’s current base, Portland, Oregon, widely recognised to be one of the most environmentally progressive cities in the United States, if not the world.
“It’s a really creative place. So many bands and artists and what have you have moved there ‘cos it’s affordable. I know there are a lot of big bands there, people like The Decemberists and Stephen Malkmus from Pavement. But we’ve never crossed their paths. We’re starting out, I’m not sure if too many people in Portland even know who we are.”
On Hockey’s debut album, Mind Chaos, Grubin reveals himself to be a master of many genres. There are forays into Flaming Lips-tinged psychedelia, angsty power-pop, MGMT-style (sorry!) white funk and, even the occasional nod towards hip-hop.
“The rapping thing I’m kind of embarrassed about,” Grubin winces. “There are bits of the album I find hard to listen back to. I’ve been rapping since school. I used to be really into hip-hop as a teenager. In New York, we used to have rap contests on the street corners. I wore the big trousers and everything.”
He’s also vaguely mortified at having picked ‘Hockey’ as a name. In the US, hockey is synonymous with brawny dudes kicking lumps out of each other on ice-rinks. Here, however, it’s the ultimate girly-man pursuit, in which people waddle around politely tapping a ball to each other.
“Yeah, we eventually figured that out,” he says with a grin. “None of us ever played ice hockey. If you don’t know what you’re doing you could really hurt yourself. I don’t worry too much about the name though. When people become familiar with a band they stop focusing so much on the name. In the long term that’s what will happen to us – I hope!”