Of Note
Comparisons to Blondie, says Jesper Anderberg, are to be forgiven. “I think there’s a slight similarity between us.” Anderberg plays keyboards and guitar in a Swedish indie-rock band called the Sounds. “I mean, we have …
New Jersey band Real Estate plays mid-tempo songs with three or four chords strummed on an electric guitar with a vocalist who’s so laid back it might take you awhile to notice when the band …
O’Brother, a five-piece from Atlanta, has three guitarists and a huge sound. I ask Johnny Dang how O’Brother manages to sound like a big stack of amps crammed into a small bag. “We don’t try …
“We think that we make pop songs, but definitely with a certain kind of twist.” It’s Artturi Taira on the phone from Madrid, talking about his band Rubik. “You might wanna call it art rock …
Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s music sounds as if it’s off an old cassette tape that sat warping in the sun on a dashboard before falling into a puddle. And it gets weirder the closer you listen …
The all-woman lineup of Wild Flag consists of two of three members of Sleater-Kinney, along with the guitarist-singer of Helium and the keyboardist of the underappreciated Elephant 6 band the Minders. So, let’s face it: …
For their Halloween party this year, the Soda Bar picked a headliner with a demon’s name: Sirhan Sirhan. It’s a band back from a graveyard of rockers gone but not forgotten. When Sirhan Sirhan was …
The Drowning Men, I was told, were a band to catch next time they played in town. So I did, at Bar Pink, I believe, and here’s what I witnessed: cheery music, bleak lyrics. “I …
You often hear the word “Americana” thrown around when music shows the influence of blues, folk, country, and old-time rock ’n’ roll. Those are all great ingredients, but why stop there? Why is jazz not …
The Bronx frontman Matt Caughthran says the inspiration for starting a new band that specialized in the playing of norteño-flavored punk music came out of thin air one day. “It was in the name of …
In the song “California,” Erika M. Anderson sings, “Fuck California, you made me boring.” It’s the lament of a Midwesterner who moved out West and did too much living, too fast and too young. Now …
“It just kind of hit me one day a few years ago,” says Donald Vercelli when asked exactly when it was that he decided to impersonate Social Distortion frontman Mike Ness. “I sang ‘Ball and …
“I been taking it easy too long,” sings Eric Earley on Blitzen Trapper’s American Goldwing. Maybe he has, and that’s why Goldwing finds his Portland band rocking out much more than usual. Songs like “Street …
Idiot Glee is 23-year-old Kentuckian James Friley, a one-man-band who surrounds himself with keyboards, effects, and a looping device. But it would be inaccurate to say that Friley is Idiot Glee, or even a gleeful …
All through the summer of 2001, the news media fueled speculation that congressman Gary Condit, who represented the San Joaquin Valley, might have been involved with the disappearance of intern Chandra Levy — especially after …
When we last heard from Rogue Wave, the long-running Bay Area band headed by Zach Rogue, they were touring in support of Permalight. It was meant to be a comeback but felt more like a …