Of Note
The sixth Revival Tour kicked off in Texas on March 15. The group rolls into San Diego April 21 propelled, as its promoters say, by “an innate need to tell a story in its naked …
A great little indie-rock band with a strange name that had a cello-playing drummer last year. I had a chance to talk to Jeffrey O’Brien about both. The cello thing, he explained, was for their …
Not the voice of an angel, which is not to say that Angel Olsen’s singing voice is not good, it’s just that it’s not particularly angelic. Intricate is a word I’d use in its place. …
“You gotta have a passion for it. That’s got to be number one. Number two? You got to be willing to pay your dues by practicing day and night.” We meet up for lunch, Bill …
In their short lifetime as a band, Neutral Milk Hotel could have been described as late bloomers. It took them almost a decade to become overnight successes, and even then, the love was delayed. In …
Once a beach band, always a beach band? Thicker Than Thieves will kick off their spring tour in Ocean Beach, not so far from where it began for them more than a decade ago. That …
Grace Potter in a nightgown: “I don’t want to be the one you forget,” sings Greta Morgan (née Salpeter) in “Medicine Man.” “I don’t wanna be the one you regret.” That’s regret — not forget. …
And now for some good old deconstruction of American pop music: the Residents are taking a lap around the country in celebration of their 40th anniversary as a creative unit. Too strange for some, the …
Does anybody remember Sparks? The brothers Mael launched that band in Los Angeles during the early 1970s, and while I don’t think they ever had what could be described as a big following, the memory …
“About six years ago, I had an epiphany of sorts.” Tony Suraci, aka the Highwayman, explains how he came to front such a complicated show. “For a long time I performed Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, …
USA Today once identified the Generators as one of America’s most underrated of punk bands. In truth, a punk-revival band from late 1990s Los Angeles, the Generators owe much to the Britpunk of the 1970s. …
John Jorgenson’s one of those guitarists with an astonishing facility, a modern performer capable of firing off lightning-fast Danny Gatton licks without a second thought, or of mastering Django Reinhardt licks using only two fingers. …
“A rock star posing as a club act.” This is how a talent buyer at a local nightclub once characterized Joey Harris. A guitarist and a singer and a songwriter, Harris was solid gold even …
They can make a whole song out of two major chords. This means that something very entertaining must also be going on simultaneously. Not that it happens all the time in the Red Wanting Blue …
“We’ve all got friends on the East Coast.” Guitarist John McAllister talks about the benefit gig to help the Red Cross effort for Hurricane Sandy victims that he and his band, the PettyBreakers, are spearheading. …