Big Takeover catches up with Akron-based husband/wife duo to discuss their twisted take on children’s music and Dan Auerbach-produced debut.
While I like a lot of experimental music, I really like the specific ways you can communicate through pop music that you can’t communicate with any other medium. I really like pure pop music. I feel most attracted to pop music made by experimental musicians just dabbling in pop music.
Big Takeover chats with Kazu Makino about their new album, skepticism and a certain song we might be hearing in the next Twilight film production.
We have a brief conversation with Cincinnati-based Eat Sugar, who talk about the recording of their latest album, ¡Levántense!, their live show, and their biggest influence.
Canadian artist Stephen Hummel, better known as subtractiveLAD, talks about his latest album, Kindred, and the inspirational changes behind it.
Despite having no musical training, his intensely minimal pieces are often described as spiritual, hypnotic, and beautiful. We chatted about his progression as an artist, and how he arrived at the new album, All is Falling.
Trashcan Sinatras lead singer Frank Reader talks about his band’s transition into middle age, the potential pitfalls of contentment, and the possibility of some TCS back catalog reissues.
We sit down for a brief chat with Thomas Wincek and Andrew Fitzpatrick of All Tiny Creatures.
Steve Howe’s career has ranged far and wide since recording a Chuck Berry cover in 1964, produced by legendary recording pioneer Joe Meek. Howe is best known as guitarist for progressive rock veterans Yes. Find out how The Libertines and Babyshambles may help to inform what is no longer just your dad’s “dinosaur rock,” and why there is fresh appreciation for the passion and meticulous craft that Howe and his bandmates deliver after four decades together.
“Everybody’s too jaded and too stupid to be pissed off about what people are doing to them in government. People are being reamed, but they don’t care! They’re too busy with their apps!”
Cat Party exist in the delicate space between punk and post-punk, but they’ve managed to avoid all the cliché pitfalls that have sunk the countless other bands who’ve tried to straddle this sound.
“It felt like a natural progression for me to explore and experiment with dub based ideas in my O.G’ness, but I have always been a fan of rebel music, all music.”
The breakup of the USSR may also just be a way to talk about your parents divorce in drag. Just don’t underestimate the as yet anonymous female vocalists. Live, who knows? They might even induce that whirling dervish frenzy…
If Chain & The Gang’s main message was really at its deepest the Gregorian monkish spartan existence suggested in the title track, why is it so radically different from anything else on the album, an album that, on a musical level, may very well be the most seductive, populist album Ian Svenonius has yet created in over 20 years of recording and performing?
Four kids from Sacramento are likely to be the next success story to come out of the Californian house show scene with their ethereal, contrasted and layered melodies. Sister Crayon vocalist Terra Lopez opens up about humble beginnings, dreams for the future, and her Jeff Buckley obsession.
I don’t like injustice, and cops – fuck, they got guns. I don’t like people with guns. I don’t like 22 year old cops walking around with guns – I think it’s stupid. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I don’t think that’s political, it’s like logical, or something.
I watched the old DVD, and I thought, “Ohh, I wish we had, back in 1986, the digital technologies we have today, in order to amp this up and make it much crazier.” And then I thought – “but wait, we DO have the digital technologies that are available today!”
Punk rock legend Joey Keithley, long-time leader of Vancouver hardcore standard-bearers D.O.A., talks writing, riffing, touring and a whole lot of hammering!
Thomas Meluch, the soon-to-be Portland expatriate better known as Benoit Pioulard, discusses the detailed nature of his work, his photographic art, and how the delicate approach he favors permeates other aspects of his life, as he talks about his third record, Lasted.
These straightedge vegan punks have voiced and fought fervently for their leftist sociopolitical beliefs since emerging as angry, outspoken kids in the early ‘90s. Co-founder and drummer Pat Thetic sat down during their recent Canadian tour to discuss the elements that keep Anti-Flag alive: activism, punk and politics.
Philadelphia’s Arc in Round has been churning away for five years, tooling around with atmospheric walls of sound thanks to frontman and studio savant Jeff Zeigler. With a new EP due out in Novemeber and a tour and full-length to follow, singer Mikele Edwards and Zeigler stole time from a frightening schedule to answer some questions.
California’s mysterious pop outfit Fol Chen sits down and talks Prince, Boards of Canada, and how being compared to a band they’ve never heard can be slightly irritating.
This year The Figgs released their tenth studio album and toured as Graham Parker’s backing band. Mike talks about life with the band, songwriting, and the man who fights himself.
The conclusion of my interview with Steve Diggle, touching on his new record, his relationship with Pete Shelley, and tattoos.
The Buzzcocks’ co-founder and singer/guitarist discusses their impending American tour, during which the band will be playing their first two records in their entirety.
The Graves Brothers Deluxe were one of the first three rock bands I got into when I moved to the Bay Area, and the only one for which I jumped around in an ape suit.
Got this excellent interview with TSOL founder/frontman Jack Grisham from our contributor Jeff Alexander and wanted to share it with you!
In Nara Denning’s Neurotique, words get in the way of the games couples play.
“I had a tight vision of the record — despairing people in tight corners who can still find some hope. If this makes me sound naive or overly precious, I’m sorry.”
“My deal is that I never force anything. I might go months and not write anything, then write four or five songs in a couple of weeks. Often, melodies and words appear while I’m out walking. I never sit down and say ‘I’m going to write a song.’”
“I wouldn’t wanna go back to the Husker Du mentality, side 2 of Zen Arcade. That’s not really good for anybody’s health.”
My neighborhood was turned upside down. I live right in the epicenter of Obama world. It’s a huge difference.
It would be nice, instead of waiting 18 months to put out an album, to just be able to put out 7” singles.
Now I’m back on the guitar on a more consistent basis and I have a satisfactory outlet for the electronic stuff.
The final part of my interview with Chris Ashford.
Part 3 of my interview with Chris Ashford.
Part 2 of my interview with Chris Ashford.
LA’s first DIY label creator offers his opinions on digital music and the current state of the music industry.
I am a massive XTC fan so it was mind blowing! I went over to his house in Swindon and we sat in his garden shed writing songs with our acoustic guitars.
I think that what I’ve learned is that if you sing off-key and that’s just what you do, you have to work with that and let it be part of what you do instead of trying not to.
I think that I was chosen because we all get along. That was it. I made it a point not to ask any questions about MINOR THREAT and I think that helped.
What I love about that solo on “Here’s to You” is that it really pissed DOUG CARRION off.
I think that in their own way JUDAS PRIEST is one of the world’s great disco bands.
Part Two of an interview with the internet metal mogul.
The conclusion to my interview with Steven Stapleton, the creative force behind Nurse With Wound.
Steven Stapleton gives a rare glimpse into the mysterious realm of Nurse With Wound.
Part One of an interview with the internet metal mogul.
Creeping forward whilst changing form and focus since the turn of the century, The Funeral Crashers have become a mainstay of New York City’s fledgling “new dark rock scene.” A new appreciation for The Crashers grew after immersing myself in their first full-length, so I decided to fill in the blanks through an interview.
Dee Kesler explains why fish, rabbits, dogs, frogs, monkeys, sharks, piranhas, eagles, turkeys and bears have all found a home in the group’s discography.
Dee Kesler: “Belgian audiences are ridiculously attentive and then equally appreciative after you finish each song. They were by far the best audience we’ve run across on a national basis.”
