Trail-blazing independent music icon Kristin Hersh (Throwing Muses, 50FootWave, solo) reveals details about her past, present, and future in an engaging and insightful interview.
Steve Moore and Jon Ireson of the atmospheric alternative rock/electronic/industrial music project Post Death Soundtrack enlighten with info about their musical history, recent album, genre-blending sound, and future plans.
Michael Weeks, one half of the electronic/post-rock duo Native Gold, spills details about working with musical partner and friend Lee Young, their atmospheric and restless sound, and accomplished debut EP.
“I’ll be damned if such a one-sided overly simplistic representation of music from this land is all the world comes to know.” – A.J. Haynes
Brett Sullivan, the founder of long-running anti-folk/punk band American Anymen, clarifies his stance against capitalism, the nature of art, and upcoming album Start My Center.
“The songs represent an inward reflection more so than an outward one. What it feels like to live in society but not an analysis of society itself.” – Andrew Kerr
I sat down with funk duo The Floozies at Bonnaroo earlier this June. Read all about what they had to say.
Preston Maddox reveals details about his nightmare dream-rock band Bloody Knives and slow-burning dystopian music project S T F U with Dean Garcia (Curve, SPC ECO).
“It’s interesting to me that as a woman in a male-dominated industry, we are congratulated when we show ‘masculine’ characteristics, but often chagrined for being ‘girly.’” – Esmé Patterson
I chatted with Steve Gunn, virtuosic guitarist and former member of Kurt Vile and the Violators. Read all about what he had to say.
“What we found is that Berlin is a city of chaos with an artistic infrastructure that is more than 100 years old. It is in a constant state of transition, and I think this enables artists to basically do whatever they want. There is no industry telling you what to listen to, and no standard for what art or music should be.” – Nic Barnes
I got to chat with Chicago garage-punk band, Twin Peaks. Read what they had to say.
“Writing songs has always been a cathartic experience for me. It’s a way of processing my life in a way that is not self-destructive.” – Zach Rogue
Noveller is the solo electric guitar project of Brooklyn composer/filmmaker, Sarah Lipstate. She’s responsible for Fantastic Planet, one of the finest albums of 2015 and has recently been the opening act for Iggy Pop on his latest tour.
“Sci-fi actually plays a big role in that, because I grew up on The Outer Limits, and I grew up on Twilight Zone and C.S. Lewis. But I didn’t tell anybody that, because I always associated it with…I don’t know, I didn’t want to tell anybody that, because it might ruin my Americana image.”
Complete interview with Carlotta Cosials of Hinds used for the short take in Big Takeover #77.
With her unique drums-and-guitar setup and already-massive repertoire of lo-fi pop gems (over 400!) 27-year-old Clarke Howell is one of the Western U.S. underground’s best-kept secrets, but with her first proper LP The Well-Rounded Clarke and the Himselfs out, another on the way and two tours with Built to Spill under her belt that ought to change soon.
Gustav Ejstes of Dungen is back in the US after a five year absence, with a new record and a short tour.
The Australian musician continues to step out from the shadow of The Go-Betweens on a new solo set, Songs to Play.
Scott Lucas talks about the new Local H record, then plays a show at Minneapolis’ Triple Rock.
“It’s [spaghetti western soundtracks] just breathtaking music regardless of the context it sits in or the film genre it’s associated with. And for that reason I thought it would be cool to see if I could mold a bit of its essence to something dance-y and opposite”.
Nerding out on music and writing with the Bitch Magnet guitarist and author of the new punk time capsule Your Band Sucks.
We have a conversation with The Pre New’s mastermind, Jamie Fry, and discuss his illustrious past and how it relates to his newest project.
“Sometimes people take what I say too seriously on social media, but I’d like to think this shows another side to Northern Star and the personality and train of thought behind it.”
It’s like Twisted Sister – a “Sister Fister” is a sister who fists. We’re not saying it’s RC, but…
“When I found music it was different, it added an extra “something” that gave me much more excitement and freedom. Before shoegaze, Sonic Youth was the band that introduced me to all this noisy experimentation with guitars, so that was what opened the gates to a flood of shoegaze bands for me.”
We sit down to talk with dream-pop composer Thomas Meluch about his latest album, Sonnet, the process of channeling nature through electronic sound, and the experience related to coming of age during the brief “blog band” phenomenon.
Jimbo – he goes, ‘I looked over at the dance floor, and it was all guys, and there was this black cowboy French kissing a white cowboy.’ And he said, ‘at that moment I knew we were in the wrong place!’
“All the songs have a certain amount of us wishing we were somewhere else in them, I’m sure of that. We’ve always done our own thing and we’ve never been bothered if the people of our home town like it.”
“They sounded so far ahead of their time back in those dark musical days when only the punk and new wave scenes offered any hope for listeners turned off by disco, bad metal, and hair bands.”
“Malmö, Sweden’s Death and Vanilla are a duo with an enchanting and occasionally creepy sound, composed on vintage instruments and drawing on musical influences ranging from Julee Cruise to Broadcast to The United States of America.”
Alvvays make a collaborative playlist on the spot, eat life-threatening hot wings, and tell us the questions they hate being asked. It’s weird, miscellaneous, and wonderful!
I never worried about trends. Magma just flies through time and periods.
“I feel very fortunate at this point in my life that I was able to meet and collaborate with these wonderful people. It would certainly be an experience to play live shows, but recording and releasing music is as much as I can hope for at this point.”
“There won’t be another five year gap between albums. I knocked it down, and now I’m building it back up.”
“I had a spiritual experience in Austin, TX. Long story short, I basically died and was reborn by some dirty old railroad tracks.”
Drawing upon the indie rock of yesteryear, Saskatchewan’s These Estates adds its own distinct voice. Meet the songwriting team behind not one but two of the smartest, most immediate LPs of 2014.
This was in the ‘hood, and you know you’ve got ethnic people; you don’t have “White Riot” on your jacket. They don’t know about The Clash song. You want a white riot? OK!
I think the current constellation of Engineers actually says more about me than any previous members – the other guys in the band both have their own projects but are happy to help realize my ideas and both bring aspects to my songs that I couldn’t achieve.
Back in the early 2000s, Constantines’ emotionally charged, blue-collar rock was a welcome anachronism. As the Canadian five-piece gears up for its first round of U.S. shows in five years, frontman Bry Webb explains why the timing feels right.
“When I found out about bass, D Boon’s mom put me on bass – this is the 70’s. This is where you put the retarded friend, it’s like right field in little league. Punk changed a lot of that shit.”
It’s a classic early 60’s girl group thing to have super snappy/up beat songs with dark lyrics or serious messages. i’m a big fan of that.
The Tesco Vee character I crawl into – if I lived that persona 24/7, I’d either be dead or incarcerated. But it’s like – there’s a certain element of satire and tongue-in-cheek in what I do. I’m going for the throat, I’m going for reaction – I want people to react, if it’s laughter, anger, whatever. I don’t want them to stand there and be bored. That’s where I’ve been coming from my whole career – I want a reaction, thus the song titles like “Crippled Children Suck.” And obviously I don’t think crippled children suck – or as I say on stage, ‘they only suck when they can actually reach my zipper.’
Neil Halstead: I would never write those exact songs at this point in my life. They are songs that come out of being 18 or 19 years old. It’s interesting how they still connect with many younger people. We’ve noticed that when we’ve been doing these shows there are some really young kids that are coming out and really loving the band and the records. We’re aware they are the same age as when we were first recording these tracks.
“I remember the hardships and the frustrations bitterly. I wasn’t mourning Maggie Thatcher’s loss greatly!”
We own all of the rights to our back catalog, so we asked ourselves for permission to use some older tunes, and we generously told ourselves that we would be happy to let ourselves use them (we have a very good relationship with ourselves in that respect)
