"Rainbowarriors are on a crusade for the kind of drug- free America where the elected officials are tranny shaman and the religious leaders are winged evangelists who speak in tongues of Happy Core.Rainbowarriors horse gallop through miles of balmy grass roads all the way to the swingset swamps.  They witch water and have witches for fathers; they hear disharmonies of sadness sung by drunken glowworms.   They sleep in swollen barns; they sleep through silver nights.Rainbowarriors live by the hero myth; Rainbowarriors ain't nothin' to fuck with."Birthed through an intricate process of prank phone calls and clairvoyant documentation, ...

Being in a band used to be different. It wasn’t all about getting the best support slots, collecting the most friends on MySpace or dressing a certain way in order to sell records. It was about crafting music that celebrated your influences, seeing the country unfold via bug-splattered van windows and meeting people and sharing experiences that wouldn’t only help spike sales in certain markets, but would also help define you as a human being.When Limbeck frontman Robb MacLean sings “It feels like I grew up too late” on Limbeck, you get the feeling that might be what he’s referring to—and with the band’s third full-length, they’ve finally done j...

It's a rare singer/songwriter that can credibly display dual sides of his musical personality-one who can quite thoroughly and convincingly operate in opposite realms of popular music. With Please Come Home, Dustin Kensrue joins those elite musical ranks.If, at the moment, he is known primarily as the focal point of Thrice-a respected, conscious underground sensation, lauded for its virtuosity, power and creativity-Please Come Home stands to change all that. Indeed, with this batch of soul-searching acoustic songs, which range from the dark, philosophical and introspective to the tender, Kensrue is more likely to snare listeners more in tune with the work of Bruce Springsteen, Elvis ...

Prescription pills and booze binges. What-the-fuck-ever one night stands. Dying young and leaving a beautiful rock ‘n’ roll corpse, Janis and Jimi-style. When the XX half of the pop-punk/reggae/rock super duo says she wanted to give people a “party record,” she’s not kidding. But that’s only one chapter in the story of Sitting in a Tree, the first collaboration between wild things Aimee Allen and Unwritten Law leader Scott Russo. Sometimes the album is the perfect soundtrack for witching hour indulgence (try swaggering leadoff track “Good Times”), but just as often it’s a brutally honest sketchbook of two mirror image misfits against the world, fiercely battling false pres...

Do you remember rock 'n' roll? Believe it or not, there was a time where instead of brooding onstage about being the last one picked during gym class, musicians were energetic entertainers and any song on an album could be a single. Toledo, Ohio's We Are The Fury may not have even been born in the '70s, but with their new disc Venus, they're keeping that era's tradition of excess, artfulness and androgyny alive--because, frankly, no one else seems to have the balls to do it.Formed while the members were still in high school, the band--singer Jeremy Lubin, drummer Stephan Lublin, guitarist Chris Hatfield, bassist Alan Hoffar and keyboardist Todd Wehrle--weren't content merely being hom...

Lover, The Lord Has Left Us... is the follow-up album from progressive rock amalgam The Sound of Animals Fighting, whose 2005 Tiger and the Duke was a milestone on the road of experimental music. Lover's expansion into alternative genres, alternative sounds, and alternative media qualifies TSOAF, further this time, as a major pioneering entity in the search for new modes of musical expression and meaning. New (the Ram, the Penguin and the Wolf?) and returning (the Hyena, the Nightingale, the Walrus, the Lynx and the Skunk) animals alike add their own infusion, sensibilities and particular steps, each given a day to complete their piece of the final structure, working remotely and adding sub...

Snagged is a powerful three piece alternative rock band that formed in early 2006 out of the suburbs of NYC.  Snagged has a very unique sound bringing the 90's grunge and 70's classic rock sound together w/ a new age melodic power rock. With the '08 release of "Ruined" in Early March, the band is being featured on a Bamboozle Fest '08 sampler and hitting the local scene with their raw, captivating energy-filled shows....

Interview with Boris drummer Atsuo by one of our users Crustcakegerf: ...

Wormburner was founded in 2002, brought to life around a handful of songs written by Steve "Hank" Henry. Hank partnered with friend and fellow New Yorker Terry Solomone, a multi-instrumentalist who shared an enthusiasm for jangle guitar rock and indie pop. Hank and Terry recruited a young Alec Senese to play drums with them in loose weekly songwriting/jamming sessions. His solid drumming provided a platform for creative expansion. By beginning of 2003, Wormburner had found a bass player in John "Hazy" Hastings. An early buzz about the band landed them a gig at New York City's celebrated Mercury Lounge. That very first night, Wormburner shared the stage with local art-punk heroes Vic Thrill. Creativity flourished, much of it inspired by s...

Patrick Watson is a Montreal-based art-rock quartet that carries the name of its chief songwriter and frontman. They exploded onto the Canadian and international scene alike at the end of 2006 following the release of Close to Paradise on Montreal's Secret City Records. From a packed record launch in September, to a series of late-night loft party/jam session at Pop Montreal, to their MVP performances at Iceland Airwaves in Reykjavik, Patrick Watson, along with bandmates Mishka Stein, Robbie Kuster, and Simon Angell, have proved in a short period of time that they deserve to be considered among the best on a growing list of Canada's promising musical exports. The versatility of Patrick Watson's music can be traced through the man himself...

Shawn Milke: vocals, guitar, piano Dennis Lee: vocals Adam Ferguson: guitar, vocals Patrick Thompson: guitar Steven Tomany: bass Jeremy Bryan: drums The crowd is still screaming at a sold out show in Anaheim, California as the sweetcore phenomenon known as Alesana exits the stage. "I don't think I’ll ever get used to this," says frontman Dennis Lee as he tips back the last swallow of his water bottle. "Seeing kids go crazy like that thousands of miles away from home reminds me that I have the best job in the world. Oh, and that wearing cowboy boots on stage probably isn't the best idea in the world...but it simply must be done." Crowd response like this is something that the six-piece from Raleigh, North Carolina is quickly ...

Ade Blackburn - keyboard, autoharp, vocals Brian Campbell - bass, flute, vocals Hartley - guitar, drums, clarinet, keyboards Carl Turney - drums, guitar, piano, backing vocals HARDLY ANY bands make it to their fourth album these days. And fewer still get there sounding as individual as Clinic. Clinic are distinctive in the way that The Fall, The Residents or Missy Elliot are distinctive, it’s hard to mistake their sonic fingerprint for anyone else’s, yet because they keep exploring the outer limits of their thing, they always sound fresh. “The rule is: surprise yourself,” says Clinic’s singer Ade Blackburn. “We went for something direct and primitive - surreal ballads next to subhuman riffs. I think it’s the most co...

It’s a long Hitchcockian zoom-in, the omniscient clouds part, the sleazy waterfront scene is set. Like Steve Zissou’s Belafonte cross-section, we can see a number of little hives of activity: a young man loiters behind a cramped bar; faces light by low lights listen intently while one speaks, gesturing wildly; a captain barks orders at his crew to hurry the fuck up; someone throws flowers into the sea; a vintage jukebox amuses the hipsters on a crawl. Welcome to the borough of a possible nowhere. Apostle of Hustle first took shape after a two-month sojourn in el barrio Santo Suarez in Havana in 2001. This experience was mind blowing for AOH’s lead – Andrew Whiteman - from the ground up: the community, the fashion, the speed and t...

First things first, it's pronounced "Hav-ne-veek". Second things second, you’d really like Kate Havnevik. She smiles a lot,– and she won’t get cross when you struggle with your “Hav-ne-veeks.” Third things third, she’s really rather good. Kate’s debut album is called Melankton, which means "black rose." (The name is taken from a character, "a crazy uncle who lives by the sea,” in Norwegian writer Jan Kjaerstad's 1999 novel Oppdageren, which translates to The Discoverer.) Kate Havnevik was always going to make music since she joined the world in Oslo, the daughter of Andrew Cunningham from Faversham, England and his Norwegian wife, Lotte. The classical flute players divorced when little Kate was just one yea...

Gena Olivier, vocals, keyboards Larry Schemel, guitar Ryan Wood, bass, keyboards Sandra Vu, drums The sound of Midnight Movies conjures a certain Los Angeles – but it’s no sun-drenched, glamorized metropolis. This is a decidedly noir L.A., replete with mystery, desire and yearning. On Lion the Girl (New Line), their second full-length release, the band explores haunting new vistas and back alleys of the soul, expanding the reach of their acclaimed “psychedelic pop” with an expanded lineup and more expansive songwriting. Produced by Steve Fisk (Nirvana, Screaming Trees, Pell Mell), Lion the Girl finds the band putting its atmospheric stamp on new-wave rock (the barreling leadoff track “Souvenirs”), darkly baroque psy...

Members: - Adam Dutkiewicz - guitar - Joel Stroetzel - guitar - Mike D'Antonio - bass - the Howard Jones - vocals - Justin Foley - drums No shortcuts. No compromises. No BS. From their modest beginnings in New England's hardcore scene to their current status as one of the most influential and inspirational forces in modern music, Killswitch Engage have played by these three simple rules. With their new, fourth album, As Daylight Dies, KsE are proving that if you keep playing the game your way, you'll eventually change the rules for everyone else. "We never co...

True, some bands are simply meant to lead, and Brooklyn’s Antibalas--as tough and diverse as the city that birthed them nearly a decade ago--has continued to do just that. The group, whose name means “bulletproof” in Spanish, has indeed proved they possess the mettle to not only survive but also thrive by employing a musical arsenal that has become known worldwide. Initially using the revolutionary blueprint of afrobeat as a launching pad, the dozen-strong members of Antibalas weave a rich tapestry of latin, jazz, classical, funk and soul into their horn-driven mix. Words fail in trying to describe the result: simultaneously polyrhythmic and political, independent and contagious, and the reason why many have credited the band for intr...

We have such an attachment to words, labels and categories. Maybe it's the simplest, most rational attempt to project organization onto the chaos of our world. But why try to constrict one of the most freeing, limitless, inspiring ways to express ourselves - music? Most DJs live their musical lives desperately trying to fit into these restrictive categories, not much unlike forcing a square into a circle, but perhaps a few music creations may have slipped between the lines of all of these exacting names and genres. Tayo, a lion amongst the sheep, has used his vast, all-embracing career to point out the absurdity behind these labels. Dipping into scenes across the board as a DJ, record label owner, promoter and press officer, he's continuall...

Until now, Jim Fairchild was best known as the guitarist for prolific Californian indie rockers Grandaddy, in addition to recent collaborations and production duties with Earlimart and Dappled Cities. Occupying a pivotal role in the group from 1995 until their recent demise, it was clear that Mr. Fairchild had much to offer. Often he played acoustic guitar, which might lead one to believe he served a nominal purpose in the hierarchy of the band. However, if you ever wedged yourself near the front of a Grandaddy show and listened as the structure rose, story by story, you realized Mr. Fairchild’s role was that of the glue holding the group together, enabling them to reach greater heights. When he picked up his electric guitar, the impres...

Maybe the dilapidated garages and all-ages clubs of the East Coast post-hardcore scene of the late 80s is a fitting place to begin our story. That’s where the chronicle of our era’s ever-humble valedictorian, Ted Leo, really gets interesting, anyway. It was here in bands Citizen’s Arrest and Animal Crackers (and later as the main song writer in Chisel) that Ted developed a sharpened political prowess, an assiduous commitment to his Gibson ES-335, an ear for melody, and charisma contagious enough to be considered chemical weaponry. A mod-punk savant in an age where punk (like practically everything intangible we’ve ever expressed interest in) has been replaced by product. With his latest, Living w...

Behind Baby Calendar’s irresistibly earnest vocals, sugary-sweet melodies and animated backbeat – characteristics that are synonymous with the adorable territory otherwise known as indie pop – is a band that writes daringly ambitious, unique arrangements spiked with a honed punk edge, all tightly wrapped in their unwavering DIY ethic. On some level, their sound is a shining reflection of Miami, the city in which all three members grew up, and its eclectic, multicultural background…not to mention three self-sufficient years making their own records and playing countless shows across the United States. To say that Gingerbread Dog has a monopoly on catchy melodies is an understatement. “Unshakable Baby Calendar virus lodged deep...

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. Initial inspection of the artwork for the Wolverines and The Sibling Project split CD yields several possible themes: a) Occasionally, beast-y creatures and humans sorta touch…like in the promotional posters for E.T. b) You should seriously think about cutting your fingernails. Or not. Whatever is cool with us… c) There is a potential super group in the making that will undoubtedly be called The Siblirines. Perhaps the real moral here is that when independent / DIY / punk rock / whatever-you-call-it is done right -- in friendship and with mutual respect -- then juxtaposing a band like Wolverines, in all their raucous, crash-and-clatter glory, with a melodic, indie-pop band li...

What did you want, sonic inducer, sheep in wool coats dumpster diving for forever hidden treasure? What did you think, summer cesspool sleeper, English wasn't a language conceived for business? Allow me, please, to introduce New Erections, the third full-length from the Southern California decade-plus young endeavor, The Locust, as a post-futurist to primitive again strangled tongue-shearer just 'cause the business is lickin' pretty bad. Circumstances prohibiting, if the Locust could've soundtracked the previous two World War's they probably would've. Time ain't always on our side. Fortunate for ears and unfortunate for Earth, this procession leader of an album is a hell of a charm with New Erections clocking in at twenty-three minutes ...

Greensboro / Raleigh-based two-piece Wolverines recently finished writing songs for their debut full-length Genosha which will see a Summer 2007 release from Playground Politics Records. The band will also be touring the East Coast in support of the album. Additionally, Wolverines have an upcoming split 7” with The Breathing on ...

Two years ago, in the middle of the campaign for her universally acclaimed, platinum selling debut "Frank", Amy Winehouse began thinking about what she'd like to do with her second record. Frank was her grand and suitably blunt-speaking break-up record, sometimes a little bitter, with a maturity in the vocal delivery that was never less than sweet. It won her a battalion of fans around the world and marked her out as one of the most distinct new voices in pop; confessional, elemental and with that rarest of combinations: humour and soul. Amy had cut through to the core of the human condition with her debut, adding her own jazzy witticisms to the legacy of the greats. So how to follow it up? Musically, she was sure where she wanted to go....

Rock music ebbs and flows. It has its trends. It has its image. It has its waves, its peaks, its valleys. It has its stars, its icons, its figureheads, many of which burn out and fade away. Massachusetts rock band Seemless don't concern themselves with the current rock 'n roll climate or with what's hip and cool right now or with constructing an image. Rather, Seemless care about crafting tight, solid, unforgettable, and timeless rock music that will live on long after the members have left this earthly plane.For Seemless, it's all about the music and only the music. It's about making massive riffs complemented by versatile vocals, finished off by booming percussion and rippling bass r...

Imagine how many cigarettes, beers, tour dates, international flights, all-night drives, backstage shenanigans, countless hours in a van, low-budget hotel rooms, notebooks filled with lyrics and endless hours of recording sessions have been consumed, experienced and sustained by Atmosphere over the course eight years?  Let’s count to eight.Remember 1997, the year beginning the next phase of independent rap artists and a new era of imprint-based record labels with the major label exploitation; the dividing period of: Mos Def, Jay Z, Company Flow and 2 Pac. Our story begins at this time in Minneapolis, MN. Eight years ago, when Atmosphere released their debut album Overcast!, on the arti...

Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin are modernists. Air embrace the new. Each album is a move away from the last and a journey towards something else. Their music is intellectually stimulating yet intuitively simple; elegiac and triumphal; beyond pop and yet resolutely of it, too. Yet Air are no academically dry intellectuals either. If their music is full of French-style clichés about boy meeting girl, it’s done so playfully, with a knowing wink. They know their way round a good joke and can deadpan for the Republic. Pocket Symphony is their fourth studio album proper and the follow up to 2004’s Talkie Walkie (although if you include their Allessandro Baricco City Reading collaboration, the Virgin Suicides soundtrack and thei...

The Arcade Fire spent most of 2006 holed up in a small church in a small town outside of Montreal. They were recording their second album NEON BIBLE. It was a slow year, mostly. The couple years before that had been rather hectic. Funeral, their first album, was released in September of 2004. The moment it came out, the Arcade Fire were caught up in a flurry of activity that left none dead but several wounded. A lot of people liked Funeral a lot. Reviews were insanely positive, from local Montreal press to New York Times feature articles. Shows, too, were selling out. In 2004, the Arcade Fire were playing small venues packed to the gills with 100, maybe 200 people. After Funeral came out, the size of the shows slowly crept up....

The Shins are an American indie rock band founded and fronted by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, James Mercer. The Shins were formed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but are now based in Portland, Oregon.The Shins began in 1996 as a side project for singer/songwriter James Mercer, whose primary band was Flake Music in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mercer formed Flake Music in 1992 with Neal Langford on guitar, Phil Higgs and then Marty Crandall on bass, and Jesse Sandoval on drums. During the next 5 years Flake Music released several singles, a full-length album, and began touring largely due to the help of other bands like Modest Mouse.In 1996, Mercer began writing what would eventually become The Shins' first record. Fla...