Photo by MARK LIKOSKY Cult Leader, sludgy grindcore crust punks from Salt Lake City, are brutally melodic in a way one would only know by going down dark paths, through treacherous caves during the worst hours in search of answers. They played Ortlieb’s last night as part of a Deathwish Records package tour that also Sweden’s God Mother and Brooklyn’s Primitive Weapons. God Mother was heavy and pleasantly evil, but the singer stopped the music from time to time because he felt the ‘moshing’ was a bit too harsh and made a joke that in his country at least if […]
MOTHER TONGUE: A Q&A With Soccer Mommy
Photo by LINDSEY GRACE WHIDDON BY SOPHIE BURKHOLDER Sophie Allison, who makes music under the name Soccer Mommy, describes her sound on her Bandcamp page as “chill but kinda sad.” Her debut album Clean (Fat Possum), which came out earlier this year, has already started topping lists for the best albums of 2018. She got her start by posting self-produced tracks online, following the increasingly popular trend of bedroom pop music. After moving to New York for college, she decided to pursue music full-time, adding a full band and advanced production to make Clean, a soft rock record that follows […]
CACTUS BLOSSOMS: Please Don’t Call Me Crazy
From Easy Way, the follow up LP to Cactus Blossom’s 2016 debut You’re Dreaming, due out March 1st 2019. PREVIOUSLY: Dillon Alexander’s Review Of You’re Dreaming
Win Tix To See Rufus Wainright @ The Keswick
Rufus is for lovers: Boys who like boys, girls who like girls, boys who like girls and girls who like boys. Young, old, everyone in between. These are his people. Basically anyone who’s ever had their heart break apart in their hands and learned the hard way that you can jigsaw it back together, with patience and the glue of time, but it will never be the same again. It’s like bypass surgery or Cupid’s arrow — it may not kill you, it might even make you stronger, but it still hurts when you lay the wrong way. By […]
Q&A With J.D. McPherson, Retro-Rock Badass
Photo by SAMANTHA FRANKLIN BY JONATHAN VALANIA I have seen the future of the past, and his name is J.D. McPherson, a thirtysomething cuffed-denim Okie with lacquered hair, iron lungs and, goodness gracious, great balls of fire. Back in 2012, McPherson and his gifted retro-rock posse released Signs & Signifiers, a bracing collection of tailfin rockabilly, rawboned R&B and sultry moonstruck balladeering. It was hands-down the feel-good record of the year. He plays Underground Arts Wednesday December 5th in support of Socks, his new Christmas album, which is why we’re re-running this fun and informative Q&A we did with Mr. […]
BEING THERE: Khruangbin @ Union Transfer
Photo by MATT SHAVER Khruangbin, an acclaimed coven of Houston psychedelic soul gurus, have been amassing an impressive following since their Thai-flavored 2015 debut LP, The Universe Smiles Upon You. “Khruangbin” is Thai for “aeroplane,” literally translating to “flying engine.” They are currently on tour in support of their latest album, Con Todo El Mundo (2018), which draws upon Spanish and Middle-Eastern influences. They have been consistently jamming sold-out shows and last night’s concert at Union Transfer was no exception. The group — which features Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar, and Donald “DJ” Johnson on drums — […]
BEING THERE: Speedy Ortiz @ First Unitarian
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER Headlining an indie rock triple-threat bill supported by Maryn Jones’ Yowler and Palberta, Speedy Ortiz laid waste to the First Unitarian Church’s basement last night. Leading the charge was vocalist Sadie Dupuis, stage-stomping in her tennis sneaks, thrashing her trademark pale salmon-colored electric flat top with customized headstock featuring her solo pseudonym Sad13. Three full-lengths deep, Speedy can take their pick of plenty of fan faves to fill a nearly two-hour set of straight-up indie rock and roll, with enough guitars and guile to make their forebears proud. There’s echoes of Jenny Lewis’ lyrical smartassery and […]
O BROTHER, WHO ART THOU: Q&A With Actor/Writer/Director Tim Blake Nelson, Star Of The Coen Brothers’ The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs
EDITOR’S NOTE: On the occasion of the release of The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs, starring Tim Blake Nelson as…wait for it…Buster Scruggs, we are reprising this 2013 interview with Mr. Nelson. Enjoy. BY JONATHAN VALANIA If you don’t know who Tim Blake Nelson is, the short answer is: the guy in O Brother Where Art Thou? who isn’t George Clooney or John Turturro. Any friend of the Coen brothers is a friend of mine, brother. Truth be told, he’s a whole lot more than that, as you’ll soon find out. I recently had cause to speak with Mr. Nelson […]
BEING THERE: Thom Yorke @ Franklin Music Hall
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER I think most music appreciators have a handful of bands or artists that totally reprogrammed their perception of music. I remember the first time I had listened to Radiohead. In fifth grade, my mom had begun noticing that I was kind of a weird kid, so she gave me two CDs she thought I might like: Kid A and OK Computer, which were given to her by one of her best friends, a photographer and painter named Yelena Yemchuck, who dated Billy Corgan around the turn of the millennium. I stuck the CDs in my disk […]
BEING THERE: (Sandy) Alex G @ First Unitarian
Photo by DYLAN LONG Nandi Rose Plunkett produces solo music under the moniker Half Waif, a name that conjures the idea of a small and helpless creature – but the singer-songwriter is anything but. Plunkett towered over a synthesizer in a red dress patterned with rose petals and hair in space buns. With her eyes closed and hands joined in prayer, I half-expected her to levitate above the stage. The set drew from her latest release, Lavender, an work punctuated with intimate portraits of human life, touching on themes of family, love and mortality. The lyrics read like poetic fairy […]
MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL: Q&A W/ Caroline Rose
BY KEELY MCAVENEY Caroline Rose, a paragon of pop-done-right, is capable of anything, whether that be fitting a pack and a half’s worth of Marlboro Reds in her mouth or writing, instrumentalizing and producing an entire album. Her most recent album, Loner, serves as a red tracksuit-clad reinvention of herself. She sheds her formerly folksy sound for the upbeat wonk of experimental pop. Each song functions like a vignette, building stories and characters that satirize everything from catcalling to capitalism. We had the privilege of talking with Caroline Rose herself about the difficulties that accompany artistic evolution, the color red, […]
INCOMING: Pedals To The Meddle
If ears had taste buds, Tera Melos would be the sour candy of math rock. Nick Reinhart is, without a doubt, one of the wackiest guitarists on the planet right now. He’s not the type of guitar player who just uses pedals; he’s a guitar player and a pedal player. Some of his solos look like a Dance Dance Revolution tutorial, with his pedalboard as the dance pad. This math rock madman owns hundreds of guitar pedals, and uses over 20 in his live setup. Aside from his adroit use of effects, Reinhart’s playing style is, in one word, erratic, […]
BEING THERE: Ty Segall @ Underground Arts
Photo by HENRY SAVAGE On a similarly cold and rainy night last April, I caught Ty Segall on tour with his band in support of his earlier 2018 record, Freedom’s Goblin. (Since then, he’s put out two more albums – Joy, a collaboration with White Fence, and Fudge Sandwich, eleven tracks of his favorite psych-rock covers.) That night seven months ago changed my whole idea of what a modern rock concert could be. The venue shook under the force of Segall’s unwieldy guitar power, and the front barrier I was pressed up against threatened to collapse under the weight of […]