Search Results for: JOHN

KEVIN COYNE STUMBLES UPON ‘ROOM FULL OF FOOLS’

Interviews

FOREWORD: Who could boast about getting offered the singing spot in the Doors after Jim Morrison’s death while living long enough to form a band with his son? Kevin Coyne, that’s who. An artful folk-Blues singer-musician out of England, he drew artwork for his albums and published a few books, but did it mostly in obscurity. Incredibly, Coyne released over thirty albums from ’69 ‘til his death from lung disease in 2002. Though he suffered a nervous breakdown in ’85,

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SPOON HIT JACKPOT WITH ‘GIRLS CAN TELL’

Interviews,

FOREWORD: Spoon’s Britt Daniel is a really nice guy. After I met him in Manhattan to conduct an interview supporting his bands’ breakthrough album, Girls Can Tell, I caught up with him in Columbus, Ohio, while doing a Mid-America brewpub tour of Cincinnati, Louisville, Lexington, Indianapolis, and Columbus in ‘02.

I drove down High Street towards Ohio State University after quaffing brews at nearby Elevator Brewery and saw this red shed with the words ‘Spoon’ on it. I thought, ‘Holy

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BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE WANNA BE ‘STRUNG OUT IN HEAVEN’

Interviews,

FOREWORD: Drunken schizoid pop surrealist, Anton Newcombe, increased his cult-size audience fivefold when an honest portrayal of his fucked-up lifestyle, liquored-up asshole tendencies, and serious animosity for West Coast indie pop rivals, the Dandy Warhols, was exposed on award-winning documentary, Dig!

You’ll see by the email interview he sent me below that he could be an inebriated jerk when the mood strikes. Though seemingly quite normal in a pre-interview email, Anton’s a moody SOB who must quit drinking and drugging.

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STEREOLAB CONCOCT ‘DOTS AND LOOPS’ FOR ‘COBRA’

Interviews

FOREWORD: Arguably the finest purveyors of easy listening ‘90s lounge-core, London’s stimulatingly minimalist combo, Stereolab, mixed gauzy ‘60s-styled French noir and classy ‘50s cocktail music with Teutonic kraut-rock machinations in a uniquely fun way.

The title of ’93 EP, Space Age Batchelor Pad Music, may describe their style best. Leaving behind a long trail of LP’s, EP’s, and singles, Stereolab really hit stride with the quick-to-follow prog-dipped phantasm, Transient Random Noise Bursts With Announcements.

‘96s Emperor Tomato Ketchup was even

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MEDESKI MARTIN & WOOD’S GROOVE MACHINE GETS ‘COMBUSTICATION’

Interviews

FOREWORD: New York City’s scrappily experimental Jazz-funk trio, Medeski Martin & Wood, inventively enjoined hip-hop rhythms and jam band sauntering to its eclectic musical stew. When I caught up to them at Manhattan’s enormous Hammerstein Ballroom in ‘97, I saw one overdosed hippie, two naked large-nippled girls, and drank three Heineken beers as they played to a capacity crowd. They’ve continued to release many live, acoustic, or studio LP’s since. MMW’s members have offered their services to many artists, including

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SAW DOCTORS GLAD TO ‘SING A SIMPLE SONG’

Interviews
FOREWORD: Working class Irish folk-rock combo, the Saw Doctors, gained a huge international cult following thanks to exuberantly festive live shows. In New York, they sold out Irving Plaza countless times. I saw ‘em there during autumn, ’97. Since then, they’ve released infrequent studio recordings such as ‘98s Songs From Sun Street, ‘01s Villains?, and ‘06s The Cure. I interviewed co-leader Davy Carton to promote their durable compilation ’97 compilation, Sing A Simple Song. This article originally appeared in Aquarian

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ICONIC ROCK PHOTOG MICK ROCK GETS HIS DUE

Journalist,

FOREWORD: I met peerless glam-punk photographer, Mick Rock, at a downtown Manhattan studio on a rainy night in 1998. Afterwards, I gave him an herb-induced ride uptown. He was a sweet guy who made a living shooting pix of famous glam-rock and punk idols – not knowing at the time these artists would be the cultural centerpieces they became. Though he nearly died from two decades of cocaine abuse, Rock’s still with us. This article originally appeared in Smug Magazine.

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ELLIOTT SMITH’S SAD DEPRESSIVES CONQUER UNIVERSE

Interviews

FOREWORD: Tragic singer-songwriter Elliott Smith began his fruitful musical in Portland, Oregon’s locally popular Heatmiser, a grunge-affected alt-rock band he left to start an aboveground solo career. Singing in a softly whispered drone, his literate transcendental folk-based self-examinations found a larger audience when several tracks were prominently used in Hollywood films Good Will Hunting and The Royal Tannenbaums.

Living in L.A., Smith continued to suffer from depression and had to deal with an ongoing heroin problem. He became quite a

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REEL BIG FISH / MR. T EXPERIENCE @ IRVING PLAZA

Interviews

Reel Big Fish / Mr. T Experience / Irving Plaza / March 3, 1996

 

Though they play different styles of loud, catchy West Coast pop, California’s Reel Big Fish and Mr. T Experience unified a highly energized, fully appreciative teen-dominated audience at Irving Plaza. While brassy seven-piece Reel Big Fish speed up Two Tone Brit ska and give it an assertive kick in the pants, bouncy ‘70s-flavored rockers Mr. T Experience unleash adrenaline-fueled, feisty pre-Green Day punk.

Several energetic …

ERIC MATTHEWS CONCEIVES POCKET SYMPHONY IN ‘THE LATENESS OF THE HOUR’

Interviews,

FOREWORD: Before going solo, California-styled musical designer Eric Matthews teamed up with Australian singer-songwriter Richard Davies to make wistful Chamber pop symphonies under the guise of Cardinal. Though their eponymous orchestral pop debut won serious plaudits, the co-leaders were too headstrong to continue as partners. Davies left to go solo on ‘96s wonderfully smooth There’s Never Been A Crowd Like This, 98s ambitiously surreal Telegraph, and ‘00s straight-up pop gesture, Barbarians.

Meanwhile, Matthews landed on his feet, too, putting out …

DIRTY THREE TAKE AUSSIE CHAMBER FOLK UNIVERSAL

Interviews

FOREWORD: Dirty Three were an Australian instrumental trio whose poignantly Classical-inspired Chamber pop piqued the interest of more adventurous post-rock explorers. Live, at Tramps in Manhattan, they played their intensely moving tunes and followed them up with some welcome, but unexpected, comic relief in the form of dirty jokes, disgusting fake song titles, and audience baiting routines. Fuckin’ great stuff. They followed up ‘03s She Has No Strings Apollo with ‘05s lesser-known Cinder. Dirty Three’s members have backed up Nick

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THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS HIT THE ROAD IN ‘MINK CAR’

Interviews

FOREWORD: I fell in love with They Might Be Giants from the beginning. Their cartoon video for the silly “Hotel Detective” and the quirky bounce of “Don’t Let’s Start” made their absurdly funny eponymous ’86 debut a dandy, one of the most wittily humorous rock albums since Steve Martin did “King Tut.”

Fronted by the Two Johns (Flansburgh and Linnell), TMBG then became extremely prolific, something you wouldn’t expect from a few loose novelty-writing class clowns. ‘88s Lincoln brought forth

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