Search Results for: JOHN

THE GIRAFFES’ NECK OF THE WOODS

Interviews

FOREWORD: Outrageously cynical art-damaged metallic punks, the Giraffes, really put on a spectacle in concert. The fear and danger alert at their shows is on high at all times. And I wouldn’t want it any other way. Though ‘06s Pretty In Puke EP and ‘08s Prime Motivator didn’t assault the senses in the same way as the Giraffes self-titled ’05 long-player did, I’d recommend checking these guys out live.

Raised in a blue collar Midwestern town, howling Giraffes vocalist Aaron …

SHOUT OUT LOUDS ROUT TAUT YANKS

Interviews

FOREWORD: Since their impressive American ’05 debut, Howl Howl Gaff Gaff, pop-rooted Swedish band, Shout Out Louds, have tightened up further, resulting in ‘07s lushly orchestrated grandiose pop stunner, Our Ill Wills. This article originally appeared in Aquarian Weekly.

Popular music has been in the blood of the Shout Out Louds front man, Adam Olenius, since he was a pre-pubescent Scandinavian schoolyard boy. His mother, a nurse who’d spent time in America as a teen, once dated the Zombies venerable …

MERCURY REV UP ‘SECRET MIGRATION’

Interviews

FOREWORD: Couldn’t get surrealistic Mercury Rev front guy Jonathan Donahue to do an interview, so I let lead guitarist Grasshopper (a.ka. Sean Mackowiak) fill me in on his long-time partnership with the reluctant bard. Onstage at Bowery Ballroom touring for ‘05s The Secret Migration, impressionistic lighting and various cinematic images provided recreational background for the Rev’s massive art-affected musical subtleties. Mercury Rev have been low key since then. I’ve yet to hear ‘08s full-length MP3 download, Strange Attractor. This article

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RIDIN’ ALONG SLEATER-KINNEY BROWSING AT ‘THE WOODS’

Interviews, , ,

Image result for SLEATER KINNEY

FOREWORD: I found it extremely difficult to get an interview with Sleater-Kinney frontline Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker. Album after album went by with no luck. Damn, I really tried reaching out. I caught these iconic feminist punk mavericks at Manhattan’s now-defunct club, Tramps, where they belted out tracks from ‘97 apex, Dig Me Out.

Eight years and four well-received albums later, The Woods broadened S-K’s scope without getting bogged down in desecrated jamming. But they disappointed some faithful fans

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BRENDAN BENSON HEDGES AGAINST ‘LOVE’

Interviews

FOREWORD: Versatile instrumentalist-composer-producer Brendan Benson was not only excited by the prospects of ‘05s The Alternative To Love when we spoke, but also the new indie rock supergroup he helped integrate with White Stripes luminary Jack White and the Greenhornes’ ace rhythm section. Together, as the Raconteurs, the decisive quartet sired ‘06s excellent Broken Boy Soldiers (with the readymade knockout “Steady As She Goes”) and ‘08s less thrilling Consolers Of The Lonely. As of ’09, the Michigan native had moved

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STARS HELP BOLSTER SENSITIVE MONTREAL INSURRECTION

Interviews,
FOREWORD: I interviewed Stars leader, Torquil Campbell, the son of Shakespearean actors, in my wife’s van, following a great Mercury Lounge set.
 
His band was in town promoting ’05 US breakout, Set Yourself On Fire. He couldn’t have been more cordial as we chatted and drank some beers. Since then, he’s released ‘06s A Little Place In The Wilderness, with long-time New York City pal, Chris Dumont (under the guise of Memphis), put out another Stars record (the ‘apoc-timistic’ In …

HEARTLESS BASTARDS CLIMB ‘STAIRS & ELEVATORS’ ‘ALL THIS TIME’

Interviews,
FOREWORD: I became friendly with Cincy’s Heartless Bastards during an ’05 tour promoting eye-opening entrée, Stairs & Elevators. Lead voice, Erika Wennerstrom, proved to be a genuinely nice person, as were her two male band mates. I remember being upset when drummer Kevin Vaughn told me respectable Cincy brewpub, Barrelhouse, had closed down (happily, it’s now a local microbrewery). I’ve included my ’06 Aquarian interview with Wennerstrom (where she promotes second album, All This Time), as well as an earlier …

R.I.P. HUNTER S. THOMPSON

Journalist

‘Gonzo’ journalist Hunter Stocton Thompson committed suicide in his Aspen, Colorado ranch home February 19, 2005. Cleverly installing himself into many semi-fictional plots adventurously undermining sociopolitical ideologues, the drug and alcohol-addled, aviator glass-wearing gun enthusiast wrote several audaciously satirical novels, such as Generation of Swine and Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas (the film version starred Johnny Depp). An acerbic counterculture icon whose inceptive 1959 book, The Rum Diaries, wasn’t released until his popularity peaked in the ‘70s, Thompson …

COACHWHIPS THRASH SUSPECTING VICTIMS ‘GINGER MINGE’

Interviews

FOREWORD: Some of the best things in life just crash and burn. San Francisco’s frighteningly belligerent Coachwhips were probably destined to fast burnout due to the mayhem and friction they evoked in everyone who experienced them. Before they fell apart at the seams, Coachwhips left us a great ’05 album that’d puncture indie rock’s sleazy womb with queasy spume. This article originally appeared in Aquarian Weekly.

Bringing their energetic living room celebration directly to the club, terrorizing San Francisco freakozoids…

OKKERVIL RIVER ROLLS OVER ‘BLACK SHEEP BOY’

Interviews,

FOREWORD: Okkervil River, whose unlikely moniker was taken from a book by minor Russian novelist, Tatyana Tolstaya, creates some of the most mellifluously maudlin lamentations in contemporary music. I got to speak to Okkervil River main man, Will Sheff, during ’04, right before Black Sheep Boy secured instant indie rock breakthrough. Even better, ‘07s The Stage Names assured protracted interest in the reliable outfit. As if to prove their worth, ’08s The Stand Ins heightened the uplifting, upbeat allure above

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PERSPECTIVE INSPECTOR REGINA SPEKTOR’S ‘SOVIET KITSCH’

Interviews

FOREWORD: Lilting mezzo-soprano, Regina Spektor, a Soviet-bred Classical pianist by trade, became friendly with future tour buddies, the Strokes, when they were making headway in 2001. Now part of the East Village’s still-thriving acoustic scene, I interviewed her just as ‘04s Soviet Kitsch caught on. By ’06, she’d return with the fine Begin To Hope. During summer ’09, her next album, Far, hit shelves and received justified plaudits.

Escaping Jewish oppression in former Soviet-ruled Russia, Regina Spektor landed in the …

ROBBERS ON HIGH STREET TRESPASS BROOKLYN

Interviews

FOREWORD: Robbers On High Street hit the ground running with ‘05s jolting jaunt, Tree City. For ‘07s passable Grand Animals, they hooked up with Italian film composer, Daniele Luppi, whose orchestral strings have been used by Gnarls Barkley and John Legend. This article originally appeared in Aquarian Weekly.

Never underestimate the utter perseverance of attentive individuals looking for commensurate acceptance parading a mischievously silly felonious moniker. Meeting in Poughkeepsie as green teens, Manhattan-reared singer-guitarist Ben Trokan and Brooklyn-raised guitarist Steve …