The music of Ghost In The House is a soundtrack for the subconscious. It could suggest a murder mystery, a visitation in a dream or a cataclysmic storm. The scores are sketches that depict musical events to be interpreted by the band. Conceived by filmmaker & musician David Michalak, Ghost in the House explores the ethereal and elemental soundscapes where music suggests an image. Stackpole’s small distinct sounds and swelling gongs resonate with Nunn’s sculptural inventions creating other worldly scenarios with texture and guidance from Bruckmann’s ominous horns and Michalak’s haunting lap steel.David Michalak - ...

The Family Elan was christened by Chris Hladowski in 2006, being the natural culmination of many hours spent in solitude, both writing songs and attempting to develop an intuitive approach to music making based on the myriad traditions of the long-necked lute. The debut album, Stare of Dawn, consists of spiraling free form yet rooted originals with Hladowski playing bouzouki, baglamas, violin, clarinet, and guitar, alongside various percussion instruments, and Hanna Tuulikki on recorder and flute. The songs range from instrumental modal wanderings with themes such as cascading waterfalls, to folk-inflected tales of friendship and seduction. It was recorded by John Cavanagh...

Awake and Alert is Maya Peart ~ Tony Reed ~ Blake Kimball ~ Spencer ReedAwake & Alert was formed in January 2004 from members who have all dabbled in some past musical projects (Fightshy, October's First Hero, Transistor Lament, El Oso Negro, Strickland). Maya Peart known locally for her soulful vocals and warm, rich solo acoustic set has ventured into the more experimental and rock driven instrumentation of Tony Reed (drums), Blake Kimball (guitars), and Spencer Reed (bass), adding a dimension of vocal melodies they had long been searching for. Achieving a unique sound all to their own, Awake&Alert quickly created a b...

Overproduction has the reputation of detoothing our monsters.Paint it Black’s New Lexicon was not cheap or easy to produce. It involves the work of two renowned engineers whose studio history include Against Me!, Jets to Brazil, Jawbreaker and Texas is the Reason. But rest assured, it’s gritty, thunderous and ugly, just the way hardcore punk should be.Rather than straining to re-create “lo-fi” in a studio, New Lexicon pushes the soundboard to the limit, bringing waves of crashing layers to the speakers. With little debate, this is...

In a world of cookie-cutter Emo/Metal, consumers alike are in a gold rush looking for distinct standout artists. Search no further, as Metal label, Roadrunner Records has done all the digging for you. Readers and music consumers everywhere, Chicago, Illinois’ very own Madina Lake. The product of two former Chicagoan bands Blank Theory and Reformer, Madina Lake is anchored by a combination of twins Matthew and Nathan Leone, Dan Torelli (drums) and guitarist Mateo Camargo. In the midst of touring and promoting their March ’07 release, From Them, Through Us, To You, Camargo spoke with MusicEmissions recently before a show at...

Kevin & Anita Robinson make the sounds. The sounds (Vee-vah-VOH-chay) are Italian for "word of mouth" and prophetically prove many would neither be able to spell or prounounce the name. Viva Voce indeed. Shaped in their indigenous benches of Alabama, Viva Voce begin a noise in 1998. Having met at a concert in an abandoned warehouse, the two began sharing their hearts and musical abilities with one another. Dating became nuptials and 4-track demos became albums. These demos came to the attention of well groomed men in Nashville, T...

Johnny Borrell (vocals, guitar), Andy Burrows (drums), Carl Dalemo (bass), Bjorn Agren (guitar).To those looking in on Razorlight today, their seemingly swift journey from London bar-band scene to huge cultural phenomenon has been a miraculous ascendance. For the band themselves it was exactly what should have happened according to the dream script they wrote as they formed their ideas four years ago in a run down rehearsal room in East London.From the start Razorlight set out to prove that the lineage of classic bands had not come to an end. They knew their history. They knew the moment. They wanted to set the bar higher. They would not suffer from the UK malaise of indifferent performers with mista...

Idiot Pilot's latest disc, Wolves, is a truly groundbreaking affair that incorporates electronic elements, post-rock ambience, and tinges of post-hardcore into a traditional pop context to create a unique amalgam of music that's just as innovative as it is accessible.Friends since elementary school, Michael Harris and Daniel Anderson began to collaborate musically at age 12, forming your typical run-of-the-mill full-member bands. Eventually they settled into being a two-piece, recording acoustic demos at a local studio in their hometown of Bellingham, WA. The studio's staff took them under their wing and helped the boys learn the mechanics of production and engineering, which later proved to...

Over the years, Id (rhymes with Syd) Guinness has performed and recorded with several Canadian artists and bands - including The Wyrd Sisters, kd lang, Randy Bachman, and the late BB Gabor. Several of his songs have been on Canadian radio playlists including 'Open Your Heart' - the title cut of an African famine relief benefit album, a co-write with Duane O'Kane, which was sung by a cast of many and played across the country. Id received a West Coast Music Award and an Oxfam Canada Award for his work on the project. As a solo artist, Id contributed a track to the Va...

There’s this song by Ned’s Atomic Dustbin (remember them?) whose title I always liked: “The Old New Un.” I always figured that it meant they’d taken an old idea and made something fresh from it; then again, maybe it’s about fish and chips. Anyway, I heard that song not long ago, and it made me think about Maritime. Dan Didier, who plays the drums, said something to me—and he said it sincerely, not giving me some marketing spiel—about how Heresy and the Hotel Choir, his band’s third album, really feels like their first.Why is tha...

These Arms Are Snakes. A natural force, that thunders with constant contradiction and challenge. Self-described as, "Four men with a chronic black cloud overhead; bitter, bummed out, and bored," they couple dark pessimism with an elemental energy that does not end.On "Tail Swallower & Dove," These Arms Are Snakes move through 10-songs with the cracked grace of bolted lightning, rolling and leveling, seeking a space to storm into. The band, comprised of Chris Common (drums, percussion), Brian Cook (bass, guitar, keyboards), Ryan Frederiksen (guitar, keyboards), Steve Snere (vocals, effects), have brought their non-stop work ethic of touring and beyond-intense performance to the studio with career d...

INTRODUCTION:His Name is Alive is well known for their ethereal, late night moods but on this new album the band picks straight up where last year's Detrola left off and fires up an army of homemade electronics and freaked out songs that are equal parts organic and mysterious. Pitchfork Media gave Detrola an 8.5 and described it as “someone singing softly right in your ear.” David Bowie put Detrola in his top ten reccomendations for 2006 and said it has “an early 70s singer/songwriter vibe plus it comes on like Karen Carpenter.” This year’s XMMER album is all that plus way more. His Name is Alive continues to create ...

There are few things in life as exhilarating as a new album by The Fiery Furnaces. Establishing themselves as one of rock music’s most consistently engaging, exciting and thought-provoking bands, The Fiery Furnaces – made up of core brother-sister duo Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger – are well-versed in creating an album that manages to balance melody, originality, and a seemingly endless arsenal of instrumental ideas. Since their debut, Gallowbird’s Bark, was released in 2003, The Fiery Furnaces have challenged the notion of what makes a song, weaving aural fragments into ten-minute-long opuses that take any number of melodic turns. Their songs oft...

Sharon Jones was born Sheron Lafaye Jones in Augusta, Georgia on May 4th 1956.  Her mother moved to Brooklyn soon thereafter, however Jones was sent down south for a few months every year to stay with her family.  As a child, she and her brothers would imitate the songs and dances of James Brown, who shared their hometown.  Like many rhythm and blues entertainers, she began performing in church at a very young age where her voice would find a lifelong home and inspiration.  As a teenager in the early nineteen seventies, she began singing outside of the church in talent shows and with local funk groups.  Later she would make her living with a combin...

To say that the words "unique" and "singular" are over-used in describing music is to state the obvious. To apply these words to the sounds created by the various duo/trio configurations of the Texas group Charalambides over the last decade plus would be understatement. To be sure there are numerous antecedents to their music; to deny this of any artist's work would be akin to saying that they are deaf. But they have surely broken new ground in the primitive/folk/mystic/improv/psych valley in which they toil. As Marcus Boon wrote in The Wire; "...here is a truly 21st century experimental ethnic music that explores quietness and stasis... in the s...

d.biddle composes their music using folk, punk, and pop influences to create songs that are both sonically pleasing and culturally skeptical with abstract lyrics that blur the lines between the personal and the political. By combining strings, percussions, brass, reeds, synthesizers, and a warm, personal, vocal presence, d.biddle strives to extend punk sensibilities into song structures that search for a sonic definition of home in a world where home has been displaced.With members that grew up in the punk and indie scenes of the 1980s and ‘90s, d.biddle maintains a responsibility in its song writing and performances that heralds back to a time of community and activism in the underground music scene.The band formed i...

After coming home from a long tour with my band, Sparta, I wanted to sit in my house and play acoustic guitar quietly. The tour had been loud and chaotic and I was simply trying to level out. I liked how things were sounding, so I began recording them in my studio.These 5 songs are the beginning of what I hope will be an on going series of recordings, hopefully adding more and more friends to the fold. This volume has a few friends of mine adding some goodness.On the song "On My Way Back Home Again" Ray Wallace of Secret Life of Sparrows (and my favorite tattoo artist/painter) played harmonica and sang back ups.Chris Heinrich, who also plays g...

Transporting listeners to a place where melody reigns, cultures clash and combine, and feedback fills the sky, The GoStation is a state of mind as much as a band. Hailing from New York City, this five-piece force is on a musical mission to restore rock to its rightful place — the hearts and minds of the people. Embracing the art of the anthem, The GoStation have willfully eschewed the structureless noise of many of their contemporaries, opting instead for epic compositions marked by masterful guitar interplay, a steady rhythmic punch, and huge sing-along choruses. Calling to mind everyone from Oasis to The Strokes by way of U2, the ba...

Though Manchester Orchestra has only been a proper band for a year and a half, this young quartet (with an average age of 19) has crafted an album that sounds more aware and traveled than many of its more aged peers. Led by singer / songwriter / guitarist Andy Hull, Manchester Orchestras debut LP, Im Like A Virgin Losing A Child, is a statement cinematic in scope  a series of emotional vignettes that delicately unravel over the course of an elegantly conceived musical arc that recalls both murky southern mysticism and the id borne bombast of the Pacific Northwest. Driven by lyrics that are insightful, spiritual and impressionistic, Im Like A Virgin Losing A Child is a litany of intimate details presented in widescreen. Just as the...

Brian Setzer has made a career of bucking trends, going against the grain, ignoring popular culture, discarding rational thought, and, all the while, blowing people away. In a pop music era dominated by twenty-something contest winners and angst-ridden suburban kids, his latest project couldn't be any further removed from the mainstream. Recording centuries-old music with his 18-piece Rockin' Big Band and enlisting the help of a long-retired octogenarian, Setzer has achieved what is surely his finest musical hour with his upcoming Surfdog Records release, "Wolfgang's Big Night Out." As a teenager, Brian Setzer drew inspiration from 50's rockabilly, fused it with new wave punk, and cr...

Formed in 2003, the Canadian band The Dirty Tricks didn't waste any time before recording their first ep "Bloody Breakfast". They released it on their very own record label (Les Disques Grabuge) late 2003. It's crystal clear, this five-song tease(Bloody Breakfast CDep) shows this band's superior export appeal. A eardrum-shredding outfit that effectively mixes the all-guns blazing aggression of The Hellacopters and the fractured intensity of Hot Snakes. Holding back the reigns just enough to have a poppy panache, this rugged roc...

Formed in the summer of 2007, Black Bone Child is a new concept of long time collaborators, Donny James and Kenneth M. Hailing from Austin, Texas, live music capitol of the world, Black Bone Child is a creation like no other.  In a world of music hybrids, members Donny James and Kenneth M. are offering a new incite into the world of blending the old with the new. Between an exciting fresh take on slide guitar and driving distorted bass lines, this energetic and rhythmically based rock is sure to keep the dance floors packed and listeners hanging on every note.  In the spring of 2008, in association with White Door Entertainment, BBC has self-produced their debut album at White Door Studios in Austin, TX. Th...

BORNPat: 1973, Ithaca New York.James: I was born in February of 1970, just missed the 60s, in Princeton New Jersey. FAMILY/MUSICAL ROOTSPat: My father is an economist and my mom’s an actuary at an insurance company. We did have music in the house all the time, like folk and for some reason reggae which was kind of weird for a white suburban family, and plenty of rock music. I always wanted to play the drums but my parents made me play the saxophone which I hated. They told me that there’d be 15 drummers in the band and only one saxop...

Civilians is Joe Henry’s tenth album to date and his second for Anti Records. It’s a wry, reflective, and sometimes devastating collection of stories. “The songs have the right amount of smoke, the right number of mirrors and the right kind of clarity,” Henry says. “And I’m not sure that, with all of the records that I’ve made, I’ve ever felt that way before now.” In addition to winning a Grammy for producing Solomon Burke’s “Don’t Give Up On Me,” Henry has produced acclaimed efforts for Ani DiFranco, Aimee Mann, Bettye LaVette, Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint, and the upcoming Mary Gauthier...

AvA consists of Tom DeLonge on guitar/vocals, guitarist David Kennedy, and bassist Matt Wachter. Angels & Airwaves was founded in the wake of Tom DeLonge’s 5 year hiatus with massive punk supergroup blink-182. DeLonge gathered a group of friends and like-minded musicians to start a band, with a musical spirit that was quite different from any of their previous efforts. The band has a vision for their music, which is not just a listening experience but something that involves videos and films paired with music to engage both imagery and sound for a unique, unparalleled experience. The band has released three studio albums, L )VE, We Don’t Need to Whisper and I-Empire, which rocketed ...

This Is A Standoff -- A name almost as long as the distance that separates these four guys. Although formed from opposite sides of the country, this band still manages to get together to write music, tour, and even have a pint or two. After the demise of one of Canada's hardest working punk bands, Belvedere, Steve and Graham were set on starting a new project and getting back on the road. In the summer of 2006, they recruited John (Forty Cent Fix) all the way from Ottawa. For over a month, Steve and John spent their time working construction, watching The Sopranos, and writing some hot blazing tracks. In November, t...

MusicEmissions; Kevin Stevens: First and foremost, what’s up with the album cover? Howard Unruh?  Soniminos; Mike Dipisa (Bass/Backing Vocals): That’s Ryan’s department. Soniminos; Ryan Sardoni (Drums/Vocals): I’ve been into reading books since I was a young kid. I’...

It's a matter of perception I suppose...being Indie that is. When I heard Amplexus for the first time, 'signed or unsigned' wasn't a contemplation. Based on the slick production and aggressive sound, I was certainly under the assumption their status was locked up by some market report reading conglomerate label subsidiary. Much to my surprise I was wrong, but is that what Amplexus, the Ohio based Metal band wants? Let's get to know the best unsigned act in America, Music Emissions 2007 Indie Of The Year elect, Amplexus.Less than two weeks after being named our 1st annual Indi...

While the Middle East continues to dominate headlines with news of conflict, war, and devastation, The Idan Raichel Project offers a positive vision for international relations where diverse cultures coexist and collaborate to produce remarkable results. The multicultural ensemble returns to the US to bring their visionary musical experience to live audiences across the country, performing at some of the country's most prestigious venues.The Idan Raichel Project is the brainchild of Israeli keyboardist, composer, producer, and arranger Idan Raichel, who invited over 70 different musicians from a wide variety of backgrounds to participate in ...

RETURN TO THE SCENE OF THE CRIME (Bettye LaVette in Muscle Shoals AL - 35 Years Later)The lounge in the Marriot Hotel is called Swampers after the nickname given The Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section by Leon Russell and made famous by Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.” Having a hotel as nice as the Marriot is a brand new development and is largely due to the area’s reinvention as a retirement community and golf resort. New courses are being designed and built along the beautiful banks of the Tennessee River, which cuts through the middle of my home region, four towns in two counties in the northwe...