Search Results for: JOHN

HEAVY-HEARTED RA RA RIOT RA-RA-RUMBLE THRU JERSEY

Interviews

Ra Ra Riot was formed in Syracuse, New York, receiving local acclaim before touring nationally. Unfortunately, original drummer John Pike died under suspicious circumstances, his body found lifeless in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts.

When relaying thoughts concerning Pike, it’s hard to look straight into the eyes of plaintive singer Wesley Miles and bassist Mathieu Santos, knowing the calamitous circumstance undermining their brief existence. But you get a strange feeling it has strengthened their collective resolve.

“I wrote lyrics with John. He …

AUTUMNS ‘BOX OF TOYS’ UNFETTERED BY ‘FAKE NOISE’

Interviews

Despite convenient comparisons to guiding lights, the Cocteau Twins, Los Angeles combo, The Autumns, increase abrasive fervor and decrease lissome ethereality for ‘08s transcending Fake Noise From A Box Of Toys (World’s Fair). Though their first three mesmerizing releases, spread across eleven years, profusely borrowed and resourcefully adapted their Scottish mentors’ glossy meditations, the West Coast quintet now churn out more confidently inventive material. Wondrously majestic singer, Matthew Kelly, one of three interdependent guitarists, flexes his expressive pipes, dousing elliptical …

BE YOUR OWN PET RETAIN RADICAL STANCE

Interviews,

FOREWORD: Despite all the critical underground exposure and popularity Be Your Own Pet got in its short tenure, its volatile front lady, Jemina Pearl, put an end to this terrific punk band in 2008. Could this radical chick overcome the reckless partying for a second shot she rightly deserves?

Could there be a better punk-devised outfit coming out of Nashville these days than the charmingly vicious bohemian quartet, Be Your Own Pet? Sure they may be politically naïve, socially ambiguous, …

DAPPLED CITIES NO GRAPPLED NINNIES IN ‘GRANDDANCE’

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FOREWORD: This article appeared in Aquarian Weekly during 2006 in support of Dappled Cities breakthrough, Granddance. By 2009, they’d score bigger with Zounds, which found little success in America but had great chart action Down Under.

  Could another Australian band capture the hearts and minds of mainstream America the way Men At Work, Midnight Oil, and Inxs did during their early ‘80s heyday?

Perhaps youthful Sydney quintet, Dappled Cities, will vault its country’s expansive barrier reef to universal greatness. The …

SEX, DRUGS, ROCK-CRAZED 1990S BRING FUN BACK

Interviews

FOREWORD: Wanna rock and roll all night and party everyday. That’s the slogan the 1990s tend to live by. Hung out with these guys prior to a smokin’ Bowery set in ’07. This article originally appeared in Aquarian Weekly.

Boozy working class trio, the 1990s, never sought praise outside the enthusiastic liquored-up Glasgow house party scene they fancied. But now they’ve gained club-sized international popularity due to delectable debut, Cookies. As an interesting sidebar, agile guitarist-vocalist John Mc Keown had …

THE TEETH SHINE BRIGHTLY ON ‘YOU’RE MY LOVER NOW’

Interviews,

FOREWORD: In 2007, it looked as if The Teeth would gain a firm grip on the indie rock biz with You’re My Lover Now. But it was not to be for the Philly boys, at least under that toothy moniker. After a March ’08 breakup, the main members announced plans to come back as The Purple. This article originally appeared in Aquarian Weekly.

Charismatic Philadelphia combo, the Teeth, never let loony pop eccentricities get the best of them despite relying …

DANISH FIGURINES NO PORCELAIN POP MILKSOPS

Interviews

Though the Hives led the Scandinavian garage rock revival initially promulgated by fellow Swedes such as The Refused and Hellacopters, primal Finnish mavericks the Nomads, plus doom-y Norwegian glam-punks Turbonegro, a less maniacal sound may upend these primal troupes as well as the puissant death-metal mavens crowding the Nordic underground. Hailing from Denmark, the smallest and least musically represented of these neighboring nations, the Figurines conveniently flirt with disparate Anglo-pop styles and assuredly merit the same immediate universal acceptance Copenhagen-based …

DEXATEENS “TOO DUMB TO QUIT” ON ‘HARDWIRE HEALING’

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Dozens of worthy ‘Confederate’ garage combos place emphasis on real or imagined liquored-up bravado to push across their assertively masculine clamor. Unlike notorious ‘70s-sojourned Alabama slammers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, astoundingly undervalued present-day denizens such as white-knuckled cow-punks Slobberbone, backwoods blues-hounds the Neckbones, folk-blues truck-stoppers North Mississippi Allstars, and, offhandedly, sci-fi surf rockers Man Or Astroman, never received the recognition due them. Hopefully that may change somewhat with the latest round of younger Dixie dwellers.

Dexateens frontman Elliott McPherson is a working …

GET UP WITH THE GO

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Image result for THE GO

Though singer-guitarist Bobby Harlow grew up in “super-cushy” Detroit suburb, Royal Oak, with future musical partners Marc Fellis (drums) and John Krautner (rhythm guitar-bass), their nascent musical offerings favored scrappy urban-drudged working class spunk. Thrust forth by the heralded late-‘90s Motor City retro rock revival, the triad’s tersely named outfit, The Go, once included a greener Jack White – but that’s just a well publicized back story.

Truth is, The Go began as a tattered teen band looking for a …

EX MODELS DABBLE IN ‘OTHER MATHEMATICS’

Interviews

FOREWORD: As you’ll see by the following 2001 interview, Brooklyn-based Ex Models have a wildly sordid sense of humor. And they were, at the time, my favorite band coming out of the thrilling ‘no wave’ Williamsburg scene. ‘03s Zoo Psychology perfected their riveting perplexities. But ‘05s Chrome Panthers was minimalist to the extreme, as only guitarist Shahin Motia and bassist Zach Lehrhoff were left from the former quartet. It’s likely the band will see some more action post-’09. This article

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FIERY FURNACES SAIL OFF ON ‘BLUEBERRY BOAT’

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FOREWORD: After a nifty set at Maxwells in Hoboken, I told Fiery Furnaces multi-instrumentalist Matthew Friedberger that one of his epic numbers sounded like early Genesis. He didn’t appear pleased, but his sister, Eleanor, got a chuckle. Anyway, that was a few months after I did this interview with Matt in support of ‘04s audaciously unconventional full-length saga, Blueberry Boat. The brother-sister duo took an even bigger chance when they put their grandmother’s narrated stories to music on ’05s middling

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AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB’S MARK EITZEL CONSTRUCTS ‘LOVE SONGS FOR PATRIOTS’

Interviews,

FOREWORD: First time I met indie cult fave Mark Eitzel, he was doing a solo acoustic set at CBGB’s 313 Gallery for now-defunct Smug Magazine’s 1st anniversary party. People were talking so loudly it ruined any chance of him being heard above the ruckus. In ’04, his resurrected American Music Club recorded Love Songs For Patriots, one of many career highlights. By ’08, Eitzel’s reassembled AMC clan continued to make evocative pastoral folk on The Golden Age. This article

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