Sune Rose Wagner Guitar/Vocals | Sharin Foo Guitar/VocalsI moved to New York City in November 2006 and like anyone who makes a move to Gotham, I made a beeline for old friends as soon as I got here. Amongst the oldest and closest I could call on were Sharin Foo and Sune Rose Wagner. Even now, we still talk about that evening we all first met regularly. It was a freezing night just before Christmas 2002 in my hometown of Coventry, England. I was a 21 year old wannabe rock ‘n’ roll writer, still at university and mainly concerned with getting wasted, they were a wannabe rock ‘n’ roll band from Denmark, touring their first single ‘Attack Of The Ghost Riders’ and also mai...

Recycling Records seems to include more than one artist within its bounds.  What are the names of each artist included on the album?  Well... the album tracklist is a hoax. Listed artists are just to point to the original ones as well as the titles to indicate what song actually was treated so nasty. Every track seems to show some different approach but in fact it’s ...

Scream Daisy have come a long way since 2000 when they released their first single, Room 7. As often happens, maintaining the momentum of success is not easy. Scream Daisy passed through a number of line-up changes slowing the band’s output. Jotham Saliba and Gary Grech, the only members remaining from the original formation, met with Lincoln Spiteri, another founder member, during an awards ceremony in 2005 and decided to join forces one more time and start afresh.During 2006 Jeremy Micallef and Tim Vella Briffa were recruited and the current formation was complete. The band started song writing and by May...

In 2003, Chris "Kiff" Gallagher walked away from an impressive career in business and public service, and sat down to write some music. In less than a year he\'d written, arranged, and produced Will and Surrender. Though it was his first attempt at writing pop songs, it was instantly clear that he had a gift. Will and Surrender was a top seller at CDbaby for months, and the single, "Wide Open" charted on Garageband\'s top 20, all-time, out of more than 17,000. ...

The Strangest Colored Lights was recorded and mixed between summer 2006 and spring 2007 in Otterworks Studio in Birmingham, which was designed and built by 13ghosts for 13ghosts.  Andrew Vernon records the sounds and Brad Armstrong mixes, with participation from the entire group.  Vernon and Armstrong have been doing it this way since they started the studio with a 4 track cassette machine and a shotgun mic in the early nineties.  The Strangest Colored Lights was mastered by Doug Van Sloun at Studio B, LTD in Omaha, NE.  Van S...

It becomes fitting, upon listening to Pelican's music, that the band hails from Chicago.  When Tortoise and their contemporaries ushered in a new wave of instrumental music over a decade ago from the Windy City, it was a pastiche of genre-defying sound, simultaneously cohesive and expansive in influence.  Similarly, Pelican's songs touch on so much from the canon of rock music. Yet they have refined their own sound over the course of their career—perhaps nowhere as progressively and courageously as on their third full-length, City of Ech...

The Akron, Ohio-based duo The Black Keys is well known for its concentrated, hermetic approach to recording, hunkering down with rudimentary equipment in an unfinished basement or commandeering the floor of a vacant local rubber factory to create terse but soulful rock that seems to have time-traveled into the pair’s amps from some long-ago radio show. But guitarist-vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney now admit they were ready for a change of scene—as well as some company. So when they got the opportunity to work with Grammy Award-nominated producer-musician-provocateur Danger Mouse, a/k/a Brian Burton (Gnarls Barkley, The Gorillaz, The Grey Album)...

"I'm glad we don't have air conditioning." It's an odd statement for the drummer of a band from Florida to make. At any point in the year the weather conditions are less then desirable and the inability of the band's rehearsal space to provide consistency could factor into the music they are trying to create. With One Small Step For Landmines the inconsistency actually BECAME the music. When it's hot you sweat, when it's cold you shiver, all of these knee-jerk reactions translate into the honest approach the band took to writing it's debut album. None of the three members arrived at the first rehearsal with any material or preconceived notion of what the band sho...

Some bands are fly-by-night operations, garnering instant fame, critical acclaim and shattering all album sales expectations within their first couple years of operation. You've seen 'em before — they're certainly here today, everyone's darlings tomorrow, and merely relegated to curbside refuse service just before the end of the week.Boris is certainly not one of those spontaneous success stories. Though the thunderously heavy and melodic Japanese experimental rock outfit has only very recently been introduced to American ears — most notably via its groundbreaking 2006 release, ...

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” —Oscar Wilde  “Heaven, it’s quite a climb….” —The Gutter Twins, “Seven Stories Underground” “It started pretty innocently,” Mark Lanegan claims of the genesis behind Saturnalia, the much-anticipated first album from The Gutter Twins, the collaboration forged by him and fellow maverick singer-songwriter ...

As singer, guitarist and songwriter of the Jayhawks, Gary Louris built a deeply compelling body of music whose artistry and integrity won the loyalty of an international audience and the respect of both critics and his peers. With Vagabonds, Louris launches his solo career on a high note, delivering a deeply felt, exquisitely-crafted set that features some of his most evocative and personally-charged work to date.If Vagabonds has a recurring theme, it's the search for something to believe in-a soulmate, as reflected by "True Blue," "Baby Let Me Take Care of You"...

Adam Turla - Vocals, Guitars Sarah Balliet - Cello, Keys  Dagan Thogerson - Percussion Matt Armstrong - BassThough they\'ve had eight years to refine their sound and vision, Murder By Death rolled out of the gates fully realized in 2000, playing a blend of rocking Americana noir and dramatic post-punk that erased old style and audience boundaries as much as it tested the limits of new ones. And with their fourth album and Vagrant debut, Red Of Tooth And Claw (3/4/08), the Bloomington, Indiana, quartet are emerging as true artists in the zero-boundary sense: cinematic storytellers whose albums c...

Beloved New York-based band Nada Surf will be releasing their new record, lucky, on February 5th, 2008. This will be Nada Surf's fifth record and third for Barsuk, following the successful and critically lauded let go (2003) and the weight is a gift (2005). The record is filled with songs of restlessness, longing and the elusiveness of love. Yet, in its inimitable way, the band beautifully counterbalances its signature lyrical wistfulness with its singular musical buoyancy. Intimate tunes become we're-all-in-this-together anthems, thanks to the chiming guitars, propulsive beat, and the ever-present yearning in singer Matthew Caws’ voice."I tend to be pretty hopeful about things further in the futu...

When Kaki King went into the studio in upstate New York to record the tracks for her fourth album, Dreaming Of Revenge, her producer, Malcolm Burn, had one condition: “He said, ‘If someone can’t be sawing a log in half and whistling along to the song, I don’t want it on the record,’” King recalls with a laugh. And so the bar was set. Burn’s mandate was just the push King needed to make her most accessible CD yet. “Even though half the tracks are instrumentals, I feel like I’m writing pop songs,” she says. “We really concentrated on the melodies. Everything I write tends to be dense and chordal, but this time the idea was to layer the challenging guitar work und...

Since forming in 2004, Time Again have taken their distinctive brand of adrenaline-fueled street punk from the club scene of their hometown Los Angeles to sold-out venues all over the US and Canada as well as across the pond to the festival stages of Europe and England. Supporting such acts as Social Distortion, Rancid, Tiger Army and The Casualties, just to name a few. A far cry from their humble beginnings when they were hustling their self titled EP\'s on the streets to raise money for tour. Time Again doesn\'t just build upon their already established sound with their second full-length album "Darker Days". They push the boundaries and deliver an album filled with emotional suspense and angst driven intensity; t...

Circular Sounds is the fourth LP from San Francisco’s home recording auteur Kelley Stoltz. Its 14 songs are a stereophonic advance on the lo-fidelity psych-fuzz of Antique Glow (Beautiful Happiness, 2004) and the mid-fi piano-rock of Below the Branches (Sub Pop, 2006): two modest masterpieces which, by a curious coincidence, both made #24 in MOJO magazine’s “Best Albums” list for their respective years.Kelley has also been praised by such esteemed publications as Uncut, Rolling Stone, Q, The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Time Out London, The Independent, and Ptolemaic Terrascope. In Australia he is a bona fide cult sensation, having scored a radio hit with “Underwater’s Where the Action ...

Through combining pure brutality, an insane level of musicianship, and catchy yet searing riffs, BRAIN DRILL manages to accomplish creating a truly prolific and memorable brand of death metal with their Metal Blade Records debut Apocalyptic Feasting. BRAIN DRILL proves that death metal can be technical yet catchy, vicious yet cultured, intricate yet completely listenable. Upon pressing play, listeners will be blasted by drummer Lord Marco Pitruzzella’s speed and dexterity, guitarist Dylan Ruskin and bassist Jeff Hughell’s complexly scorching riffs and technique, and vocalists Steve Rathjen’s combination of low growls and blistering screams.Here’s what Alex Webster of Cannibal Corpse, bassist for one of the all time t...

Founded 1988 in Stockholm/Sweden, Dismember were among those responsible for Death Metal\'s big breakthrough. The debut album, "Like An Ever Flowing Stream" from 1991, clearly showed that Dismember are an uncompromising band which resulted in their rise to cult status within a short period of time after the album took the scene by storm. Extensive touring with bands like Death and Cannibal Corpse showed that Dismember are a live force to be reckoned with and the number of fans grew steadily.Spurred on by success, it was easy for mastermind, drummer and producer, Fred Estby and co. to commence the songwriting for the next album. However, the band then released the 5-track EP, "Pieces", and went out on tour again instea...

If life is a highway, FU MANCHU is its soundtrack. Over the last dozen years, the Southern California quartet has perfected the art of the riff, mastered the depth of the groove and sharpened the edge of the hook, and as their 10th album We Must Obey proves, the group's always-rockin' van still has plenty of gas left in the tank. Co-produced by Andrew Alekel (Weezer, Rancid, Queens of the Stone Age) and the band themselves, the record is infectious, inspiring and, most importantly, authentic, the sound of a time- and road-tested group cruising along confidently yet effortlessly.While FU MANCHU's music has been alternately described as stoner rock, surf-punk and desert rock, the truth is that it's all of the above. Rolling Stone probably sai...

Claudio Sanchez – vocals, guitar Travis Stever – guitar Michael Todd – bass Joshua Eppard – drums As celebrity gossip shows and reality programming continue to be the dominant choice of entertainment for millions, many musicians have opted not to challenge the masses and instead write short, simple and predictable songs that sound good on the radio...... then there's Coheed and Cambria.For three years now, the New York group has been releasing dynamic, multi-faceted albums that are as infectious as they are innovative. Their songs are packed with undeniable hooks and contemporary textures, but their sonic vistas are reminiscent of great progressive and atmospheric bands from the '60s and '70s. Bes...

Chimaira is proof that there is life after death. The months following the release of the band's self-titled third album, despite the record's blistering and undeniably killer content, were a dark time. Band members threatened to leave. There were face-to-face arguments. Problems stacked up with their record label. In Cleveland, it seemed like the sky was falling. "We had a wall in front of us. The question became: 'Are we going to just stare at it, or get over it?'" recalls Chimaira singer Mark Hunter. "We kicked ourselves in the ass. And now, we have life again." The sound of that life is nothing less than a sledgehammer to the face. An album cooked up in the rehearsal room with no pretenses beyond ...

Film is the first solo album by Stefan Németh, member of Radian and Lokai and the co-founder of Mosz Records. The album developed out of his years of work creating soundscapes for experimental filmakers and installation artists, but it was only after years of creating this work that he had he idea to repurpose it for an album under his own name. Since around 2001, Stefan Németh has been working with the creators of short films and experimental...

Brandon Summers was disenchanted at a time when he thought he'd be anything but. Following two epic, self-produced albums on Portland's Cavity Search, The Helio Sequence had just released Love and Distance, the duo's shimmering 2004 debut on Sub Pop. Brandon and best friend Benjamin Weikel were traversing the country with their impressive collection of synthesizers, pedals, guitars and massive amps all jam-packed into a brand new tour van (a two-seater obtained during Benjamin's stint as the drummer for Modest Mouse). And heck, the pair had even left their day jobs at their hometown music shop in Beaverton, O...

"My dad said I was an afterparty baby; this goes out to all the accidents out there; keep on making mistakes" - the final words that resonate from the daring acapella lead track "Do I Miss My Friends?" on Cadence Weapon's highly anticipated sophomore release, Afterparty Babies.In the course from his debut album Breaking Kayfabe to his sophomore record, Roland Pemberton has come of age. While most youths were struggling to focus on a sneaker brand for more than a week; the young (and underage) Pemberton would slip into clubs to play shows with Spank Rock, Lady So...

A couple of weeks ago a popped this EP in my cd player and was blown away. It was from a band called Eat Sugar. I enjoyed it so much that I actually made an attempt to contact them, via myspace. To my surprise Greg Poneris(co-founder and drummer) actually wrote me back. After a couple days of messages we set up a interview(I was stoked). So there I was sitting around when my phone rings. It was Greg calling for his interview. I answer a little unprepared and from there...... Q:What is some general information about the band? A: Jim(Bass) and I were in a band called, Chalk, for about nine years and when they broke up we formed Eat Sugar. Then we found Aide...

Inherent to the tradition of his past and present influences, Guillermo Scott Herren has delivered Golden Pollen, an album that explores a wealth of history and exceeds all expectation. The songs featured on this album, some of the first Herren has written with only himself as the primary vocalist, are indicative of a lush, organic texture that reflect mainly on the very personal and transparent nature of their arrangements. Recorded over a period of isolation, these songs enabled Herren to ...

With Justin Townes Earle’s pedigree come mixed blessings. As the son of legendary singer/songwriter Steve Earle, high expectations are the name of the game, and he’s shown that he is up to the task on The Good Life, crafting stark portraits and narrative tales with elements of blues, classic country and rock n’roll. A modern-day troubadour, Earle blends genres seamlessly, framing his songs in warm musical settings and creating tunes that could easily be mistaken for classics. “I started out to make an old timey country record, but I listen to so many other kinds of music,” Justin...

Dallas, Texas-based intodown, a band that has garnered illicit descriptions along the lines of progressive, psychedelic, space, stoner, and experimental rock, will celebrate the release of their latest full-length, "Brave New World", in February 2008. Often referred to by peers and fans as "the 60s band from the future!" because their sound fuses some of the best elements of the great bands of that time period, with a fresh, contemporary palette, "Brave New World", takes the listener on an intense, epic, psychedelic sonic journey; down the rabbit ...

How does a band from a little town outside of Leeds end up going by the name Your Vegas? “It was one of our first songs,” says the band’s singer Coyle Girelli. “Your Vegas seemed to sum us up. It’s about escaping to a different place, wherever that is.” Escape, along with brotherhood, is at the core of Your Vegas. Four of the five band members grew up in a small suburb of Leeds called Otley. Forming a band came naturally; according to Girelli. “There aren’t many people in Otley. You find three other people near the same age into music, you’re probably going to meet up and form a band.&rd...

Broadway Calls is the sometimes pop, sometimes punk, always ultra-catchy band hailing from Rainier, Oregon. Having been compared to bands like Latterman, Green Day, Alkaline Trio and Kid Dynamite, Broadway Calls appeals to an audience of intense, genuine music lovers: The kind of crowd that loves to sing every word to every song.   After playing one hometown show, Broadway Calls took a sink-or-swim approach and headed straight out on tour with label-mate Daggermouth.  The tour was a great success and Broadway Calls made a name for themselves in the hardcore community. In the year that followed the band hardly had time to come up fo...