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...
Byron Bay, Australia; situated on the far north coast of New South Wales, it's arguably one of this planet's most idyllic tourist destinations. A tranquil paradise of immaculate sandy beaches and lush tropical rainforest, it's full of surf retreats, hippie communes and backpacker hostels. Perhaps the most notable thing to come out of the place prior to 2003 were surfing champs and picturesque postcards, but all that changed with the spawning of Parkway Drive.Blasting out of Byron, almost as an affront to the serenity of their surrounds, Parkway Drive quickly established themselves as the most formidable force Australian heavy hardcor...
Rose Rossi is a 24 year old Los Angeles native. From an early age, her parents (both are actors) instilled the love of artistic expression in Rose and her younger sister. They insisted that both daughters study piano, although Rose dreaded lessons and described practicing as a form of torture. To get out of piano lessons she swore she would love music more if only her parents got her a guitar. Indeed, it was true. Rose had found a new best friend. Not only did she practice but she began writing songs. "Guitar became my tool for exploration and expression. I used it to 'dig deep'," she says with a smile.Her first performing expe...
Armenian-American poet gone wild has blossomed beyond voice and hair into true fire and brimstone, melodic visionary perched on a cannonball soaring light speed through the heavens, striking chords from every cloud and raining from the heart.His newest solo project ELECT THE DEAD, where he plays just about every instrument, shows more range than the US Missile System, exploding the parameters of "political" or intellectual music into realms of just good shit.Sonic sanctuary is the term that comes to mind when describing Serj's voice. An angel scribbling into the margins of a book, unholy, contemplating the afterfuture while indicting the overbearing presence of the p...
Junk Science is Baje One on the mic and DJ Snafu on the beats. Simple. These two young gentlemen met in high school in Brooklyn in the mid-nineties (when Baje One stole a handful of tapes from Snafu's backpack, including a cassette containing original beats that were "dope") and started making lots of "not-that-good-but-definitely-interesting" music together on half-days and weekends. Not that much happened between then and 2003-ish. At that point, they moved in together and started working on their debut album, Feeding Einstein, “an intelligent blend of DJ Snafu’s dusty collages and Baje One’s thoughtful commentary.”...
Zico Chain are about to set fire to everything you thought British heavy rock could be. According to Chris, the singing bassist, their mission statement has always been certain. “I want to make the heaviest, most diverse pop album in the world.” Blasphemous? Maybe? Essential? Definitely. “That’s where I wanna go. I want to make music that’s amazingly easy to listen to but you don’t know why, because it’s pounding your head so hard.” When you’ve woken up from having your head battered by the bloody ‘Aneamia’, your veins fired up by ‘Junk’ and your eyes popped by &l...
Since the release of Destroy To Create (2005 Stomp Records), THE FLATLINERS have toured 9 Canadian provinces and 28 states, alongside such notable acts as: Bad Religion, Anti-Flag, The Suicide Machines, Death By Stereo, Big D & the Kids Table, None More Black, No Use For A Name, The Loved Ones, Catch 22, the Voodoo Glow Skulls, Bigwig, etc., including dates on the 2006 and 2007 Vans Warped Tour… all before reaching the age of 20. Two years after their debut album won over fans and music critics all over Canada and the US with its catchy melding of ska-punk anthems, they a...
Taken from http://southernlord.com Hailing from deep in the country just outside of Olympia, Washington, Wolves in the Throneroom are brothers Nathan (guitar vocals) and Aaron Weaver (drums) and Rick Dahlin (guitar). Their debut album �Diadem of 12 Stars� was released February, 2006 through Vendlus records. "Diadem" was recorded in San Francisco with Tim Green at Louder Studios. It was through this recording and the band being heavily praised within the metal underground that caught the attention of Southern Lord who subsequently signed the band to the label in late 2006. The Wolves music is rooted in the traditions of Black Metal, but they subvert t...
Malian guitarist Habib Koité is one of Africa’s most popular and recognized musicians. Habib Koité was born in 1958 in Thiès, a Senegalese town situated on the railway line connecting Dakar to Niger, where his father worked on the construction of the tracks. Six months after his birth, the Koité family returned to the regional capital of west Mali, Kayes, and then to Bamako. Habib comes from a noble line of Khassonké griots, traditional troubadors who provide wit, wisdom and musical entertainment at social gatherings and special events. Habib grew up surrounded by seventeen brothers and sisters, and developed his unique guitar ...
There are some bands whose story is easy to tell. They are the bands for whom it all just falls into place: their sound is easy to describe and pigeonhole, their look is stylized and just so, their philosophy drops into a classic, easily defined rock'n'roll slot, their story adheres to a tried and tested career path. The Rumble Strips are not one of those bands. They're much more interesting. In fact, they're probably the most exciting, singular band in London. But their story doesn't even begin in London.It begins in Tavistock, near Exeter, on the border of Cornwall and Devon. It's here that the four band membe...
Gilbert, AZ. Population: not too many. Hedged away in the Arizona dustbowl, Gilbert is the kind of small, desolate suburb where the overworked end up retiring. While it may seem shocking to hear now, two years ago then-impending high school graduates Scary Kids Scaring Kids decided that they were ready for a retirement of their own. “We just sort of fizzled out,” remembers now-20-year-old drummer Peter Costa. “We recorded our first EP during our senior year of high school and then we put out it out on our own that June. I don’t think any of us thought for sure that this band had a future.” And, sure enough, by ...
Frank Casillas – VocalsEddie Casillas – GuitarJorge Casillas – BassJerry O’Neill – DrumsBrodie Johnson – TrumpetEric Fazzini - SaxIn their sixteen years of existence, the Voodoo Glow Skulls have an impressive list of achievements. Seven albums, one million records sold, appearances in exotic locations like Brazil and Japan as well as the creation of a record store, record label, recording studio and a music venue attests to the remarkable creativity and energy of the band. Formed in 1988, Voodoo Glow Skulls meshed hardcore punk, traditional ska, tough guit...
The StoryRed Heart the Ticker was conceived in the woods of Vermont in the hand built cabin of Robin and Ty during cold winter nights a by a sputtering birch log wood fire. When they felt an album was ready to be born, they moved their instruments into a post and beam barn down the road and started recording their songs with one microphone and one laptop. (One prairie and one bee/ and reverie.) Friends arrived: an amazing guitar player from New York showed up with six guitars, a pedal steel and a Casio keyboard in tow. A facile drummer from Boston arrived. An electronica artist came and wandered around amongst the trees. These musicians slept on the screen porch...
Les Savy Fav is Tim Harrington (vocals), Seth Jabour (guitar), Syd Butler (bass) and Harrison Haynes (drums). It has been nearly 6 years since Les Savy Fav has released a full album of new material. Finding their place in music has resulted in the new full length entitled Let's Stay Friends. Since forming in 1995, Les Savy Fav has grown into a band considered among the godfathers of the independent rock music scene, releasing three albums (3/5 in 1997, The Cat & The Cobra in 1999, ...
Originally from the prairies of canada, Wendy McNeill's songs retain her love of wide open space and the longing that such big skies can generate.She is a fan of underdogs, strange cats and brave hearts. these characters are often the centerpieces of her songs which she creates using looped vocals, accordion, and guitar.She has been described as an artist that creates 'deep twisted tales' and 'wise moving music'.In the beginning...Mcneill's first musical memories were of her parents folk and old country records being drowned out by her older teenage siblings recordings of Pink Floyd, Supertramp, and Black Sabbath.The first cassette that she fell i...
The way it works, everyone likes the first record better. You're a music fan, presumably, so you probably understand the idea here that, when placed in historical context, a band's initial statement to the world is often seen as its most lasting. Motion City Soundtrack began in Minneapolis in 1999. Two years ago, they released their first album, I Am The Movie, crawled inside a van for seemingly the end of eternity and shot a video with their friends back home for "The Future Freaks Me Out," a loud and instantly enjoyable anthem that has become such an undeniable apex at the band's live shows that it is no longer sung by singer/guitarist Justin Pierre...
Oakland, California-based Hiero Imperium Records announces Bay Area rapper Knobody as the first artist signing to its new Triple i League. The Hiero Imperium Triple i League is Hiero's version of a Major League Baseball farm team. With the goal of providing a kickstart for fresh talent, the seasoned vets at Hiero are bringing their A&R and business expertise to the table and scouting the best undiscovered talent in the Bay and beyond. In an industry where it's common to see undiscovered talent get signed under a major label artist's label only to get trapped in a financially parasitic situation, Hiero CEO Tajai Massey...
With high praise from the metal press, local and national newspapers, and highbrow publications alike, Chicago’s YAKUZA has succeeded in garnering attention of all kinds, all the while not compromising the band’s free-flowing and spontaneous musical integrity. Regardless, YAKUZA remains independent, maintaining an almost indescribable sound that picks and plucks from a wealth of influences and inspirations.Staying deeply rooted in a genre all its own, YAKUZA’s existence lies on a metal base with progressive flair, while somehow also incorporating elements of jazz, world beat, and post-rock ambience. Picture (if you can) a mixtu...
The woven lyrics and singular songwriting style heard in Sunset Rubdown invoke a mythological world, where magical narratives and tiny metaphors give shape to ordinary objects in the room; sometimes beautiful, sometimes beastly. The moniker was first born to bear the solo bedroom recordings of Spencer Krug, but has since evolved into a full-fledged band, involving the vital contributions of fellow Montreal residents Jordan Robson Cramer, Michael Doerksen, and Camilla Wynne Ingr.Now enter Sunset Rubdown's third full-length record, "Random Spirit Lover", featuring twelv...
Jens Lekman opens Night Falls Over Kortedala with the sure step of an artist in complete command of his creative self. Imbued with epic grandeur, "And I Remember Every Kiss" fades in with a melancholy timpani roll, a stirring string section and Jens crooning with every wistful bone in his body. After the first verse, the strings passionately swell into a wall of sound and - with one gravity-defying pass-through - Jens delivers his death blow to cynicism by declaring, "And I would never kiss anyone / Who doesn't burn me like the sun / And I remember every kiss like my first kiss;" illus...
We were at Avast here in Seattle, where most of the new Band of Horses album Cease to Begin was recorded and mixed, and left with a bit of time on his hands, singer/songwriter Ben Bridwell kept himself busy with a crossword puzzle. He burned through most of it in just a few minutes. And though I was trying to focus on the music I was hearing for the first time, it was hard not to notice that the kid I’d met years ago (as a member of Carissa’s Wierd and as the person putting out CW records through his Brown Records imprint), and whose music I’d loved for so long, wasn’t just a great mus...
With the last note an echo, sweat dripping from brows, gear resting silently on stands, and exhausted fans mobbing and clamoring for merchandise, most bands quickly head for the exits to retire for the night, confining themselves to a location away from the ruckus of security clearing the room. Generally, the secluded location is a restricted- access backstage room or the isolation of a tour bus, but then again, Seattle-based Amber Pacific isn’t most bands.“At our shows, we spend most of our time with fans talking around our merch table,” says guitarist/vocalist Will Nutter. “We generally don’t hang out in the back ...
Most typical southern band bios start with the cliché and overused phrase "from the murky swamps" or "bayou born and bred". Those sentiments, while holding some air of truth, are too redundant for Down. Down isn't your typical 'Southern' band. This is a band, however, molded and twisted by their environment. Passionate, focused, hanging on to their NOLA pride and upbringing, much like Louisiana's Spanish moss drifting and swaying from hurricane and termite damaged Magnolia trees. The war torn history of the brotherhood is a tribute to stubbornness and retribution that belies all combined groups before a...
The Receiving End of Sirens is gearing up to release their second studio album, The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi, out August 7th on Triple Crown Records. Produced by Matt Squire (Panic at the Disco, Hit The Lights, Northstar), this album is the band's most altruistic, enthralling and skillful work to date.The initiative behind this record has allowed TREOS (Alex Bars-vox/gutiar, Brendan Brown-vox/bass, Andrew Cook-drums, Nate Patterson-guitar/keys, Brian Southall- guitar) the lucidity to create more sophisticated sounds. The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi, is an artfully driven aural...
"For me, great records are always about salvation, redemption, reflection, the dirt and the beauty, living through your own trials and experiences," says Rob Garza, one half of electronic music pioneers Thievery Corporation and the brains behind his new solo project Dust Galaxy, "What I love about some of my favorite records like "Sandanista," "Sgt. Peppers," "Odyssey and Oracle," and "Sunshine Superman" is the way they drift through different musical temperaments." Having spent the past ...
New Atlantic is not a band to settle for anything below their exceptionally high standards. Founded by Hindley and The College of NJ classmate Giovanni Gianni (vocals), New Atlantic hit the ground running with the addition of former The June Spirit bassist Dave Carlson, guitarist Matthew Sztyk, and drummer Jacob Kalb. The band s attention to detail and work ethic is apparent in everything from their perpetual tour schedule to, more importantly, their flawlessly crafted songs. It s a quality that not only attracted the label to the band, but an invisible force keeping their fans on the edge of their seats. When New Atlantic does something, they do it...
mon·grel [muhng-gruhl, mong-]– noun.1. a dog of mixed or indeterminate breed2. any animal or plant resulting from the crossing of different breeds or varieties.3. any cross between different things, esp. if inharmonious or indiscriminate.- adjective4. of mixed breed, nature, or origin; of or like a mongrel.The mongrel has a fucking headache. The mongrel drinks because you cry. The mongrel wants revenge for every shitty thing you’ve done. For every backbiting insult, every careless slight, every vicious blow. It’s tearing him (it?) from the inside out.A product of harried miscegenation, a foaming mix-breed ha...
Responsible for all but revolutionizing the entire face of underground hip-hop in the early portion of this decade with a slew of potent and influential releases such as 2000’s Float LP and 2001’s monumental Labor Days LP to his most recent EP, 2004’s Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives, Aesop Rock (aka Ian Bavitz) has proven that resting on his past laurels is all but forbidden. Following his Fast Cars EP, Aesop defied convention and collaborated with visual artist Jeremy Fish on “The Next Best Thing”, a short story...
DIVISION DAY IS:Seb Bailey- Bass/Second Guitar/Second VocalsRohner Segnitz- Casio/Keys/VocalsKevin Lenhart- Drums!Ryan Wilson- GuitarDivision Day has been around since 2001, the summer in which the four lads (Ryan Wilson, Rohner Segnitz, Seb Bailey, and Kevin Lenhart) moved into a house in Santa Cruz, sound-proofed a bedroom, put together an EP, and played their first few shows. After that summer, it was back to school for 2 more years; Division Day performed now and then, and every summer they took up residence in new unglamorous practice spaces (garages, portable trailers, laundry rooms). It was in the final of these collegiate summers that the band wrote and recorded the...
