Of Note
“Forget hipsters, let’s all hate on twee for a while,” read a recent headline on the website Brokelyn. The accompanying article was about Brooklyn’s “artisanal” food makers and the complicated emotions they evoke. (Sure, they …
When talking about San Diego’s Little Hurricane, it’s best to get the White Stripes comparison out of the way first. Little Hurricane is a duo with a guy singing and playing guitar and a woman …
Last week a writer posed this question to online magazine Slate: “Is Madonna too old to make Madonna music?” Sonny Vincent would have a laugh. He’s just turned 59 and has no trouble still being …
In the glory days of rock ’n’ roll, artists changed all the time: Dylan went electric, became a Christian, and went back to his irascible, inscrutable self; Bowie became a different character every couple of …
Jimmie Dale Gilmore is a singer/songwriter from Lubbock, Texas. In the early 1970s he started a band called the Flatlanders with Joe Ely and Butch Hancock. They made the first alt-country record ever, but it …
When asked, the Hives will say that they are the best rock band in all of Sweden, maybe even the planet. For sure, they are the biggest smartasses. “First, you will clap,” singer Howlin’ Pelle …
Peter Wolf Crier is a duo consisting of singer-guitarist Peter Pisano and drummer Brian Moen, and you might guess they sound like the Black Keys, the White Stripes, or other retro-minded guitar-drums duos. But Peter …
Today’s folk-rock is typically made to sound like a product of the predigital age, but the success of bands such as Fleet Foxes, Mumford & Sons, and the Avett Brothers proves that the early 21st …
It’s Alex Toth, the trumpet-playing founder of Rubblebucket on the phone. He’s just finishing breakfast in Columbus, Missouri, a long way from home in Brooklyn. His band is touring in support of their latest, Live …
Smokin’ Joe Kubek and Bnois King are a blues band with two lead guitars. In the hyperactive world that is guitar-fronting, twin leads requires checked egos and dissimilar performance styles. Bnois (pronounced Buh-noise) King, from …
The Heartless Bastards started out as a power trio from Ohio, playing a very Midwestern kind of rock ’n’ roll. They weren’t groundbreaking, but neither were they overly reverent about their influences. They sometimes got …
The website intothewoods.tv has a remarkable video of the band Radiation City performing their song “Babies” in someone’s living room. They’re packed in so tightly that one guy who wants to listen is standing outside, …
The rise and fall and rise again of the power trio as an art form notwithstanding, the first thing I want to know about the Grass Heat is the name. How did it come to …
By the time Mrs. Magician plays the Belly Up, their Swami Records debut Strange Heaven will have been released digitally. My advance copy reveals a collection of radio-ready indie power-pop tunes, all of them likeable …
I’ve watched the music video for the Cults’ “Go Outside” at least a half-dozen times now, and I still don’t know what to make of it. Directed by Isaiah Seret, the video is assembled largely …
I ask Joe Louis Walker if Hellfire, the title of his debut release on Alligator Records, is short for “hellfire and brimstone.” He says it could be. After all, he does have a background in …