Author Archive
Q&A
Pitchfork called Gang of Four’s debut, Entertainment!, one of the best albums of the ’70s, proclaiming that it was “caustic and bursting with disgust for unethical capitalism, opportunist politicians and consumer society,...
Q&A
Recorded with Grammy-nominated producer Mitchell Froom in his Los Angeles studio, Kat Edmonson’s major label debut has received high praise. The album comes in the wake of her highly acclaimed 2012 release, Way Down Low, a reco...
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On their seventh full-length album, Murder by Death’s Americana sound mixes with enlivening new pop, electronic and psychedelic rock. Singer-guitarist Adam Turla has a distinctively deep, gravelly voice that really resonates, e...
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Many punk bands don’t last past a gig or two, so it’s all the more remarkable that the Queens-based punk band Bayside has persevered for 15 years now. The group’s punk, which often borders on pop, features introspective lyrics ...
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Local H entered into relatively unchartered musical territory when the group first formed in 1990 in Zion, Illinois. Though started as a four-piece, it quickly whittled down to a duo. At the time, there weren’t many two-pieces ...
CLE
Run by graphic designers Eric Palmerlee and Johnathan Swafford, Aqualamb Records is a new label with a new approach to releasing music. It’s “inspired by the lack of album art in the age of invisible music.” In lieu...
Q&A
The career of multi-instrumentalist Booker T. Jones dates back to the early ‘60s when he got a gig as a session musician at Satellite (soon to be Stax Records) in Memphis. When he was 16, he played saxophone on “’Cause I Love Y...
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Swans‘ frontman Michael Gira originally thought he would be a visual artist. Since childhood, he regularly created illustrations and “devoured books on art.” He even went to art school. It was there that he wa...
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Scott Freiman’s Beatles lectures are such a hit that he’s become a regular on the lecture circuit. Freiman, a composer and producer who started putting together Beatles presentations four years ago as a way to entertain his mus...
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Wisconsin-born John McCutcheon was in school at St. John’s University in Minnesota when he decided to take a trip to Appalachia to spend time with some of the musicians there and learn the tricks of the trade. It was a formativ...