New music feature: The Raveonettes
September 21, 2009 Leave a comment
UPDATE: You can read the full version here!
The Raveonettes’ new album, In and Out of Control, is out Oct. 6 on Vice Records. It’s good stuff, check it out!
New music feature: Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan
September 17, 2009 Leave a comment
Interview with Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan on Billboard.com
I think I did this interview in June…? It got pushed back, bumped online, yada yada, but you can read it now! Also, I had only gotten the band’s new record, Popular Songs (out now on Matador), a day or two before the interview, so I didn’t have time to fall in love with it before talking with Ira. I’ve had plenty of time since then, and it’s great. I’m in the middle of a very Yo La Tengo–filled couple of weeks: Last week my roommates and I went to the band’s album release party at a gallery in Chelsea (Oh yeah, I live in Brooklyn now!), and next Friday I’m going to see them at the Roseland Ballroom.
Speaking of upcoming shows, I have a bunch of them on my calendar (tentative list on the left sidebar if you feel like tracking me down). Expect lots of live reviews + photos in the next couple of weeks!
Not-so-new music feature: Regina Spektor
September 17, 2009 1 Comment
Regina Spektor feature in the Chicago Sun-Times (by way of Billboard)
The original version of this story was published in Billboard a few months ago, but it was so kindly pointed out to me that the Chicago Sun-Times picked it up (and cut out a big chunk of the story) just last week! Eventually I hopefully will have a scan or PDF of the whole thing—my biggest so far for Billboard, which was quite exciting, although it is the product of one of the most stressful weekends of my life…
New album review: Passion Pit’s “Manners”
June 22, 2009 Leave a comment
Review of Passion Pit’s Manners on Billboard.com (and in the June 27 issue of the magazine)
I know, this came out a month ago and everyone already knows it’s great, but feel free to read about it again! (Wrote this a while ago and it just ran this week, but that’s OK!) Despite the fact that the band’s name sounds like, as my editor put it, “a chain of South Carolina BBQ joints”—which is super appetizing to my vegetarian/pescatarian self—I am so far from being sick of this band. Also, my friend/future NY roomie and I are buying tickets for their just-added second show with Phoenix at Central Park on Sept. 26!
New music feature: Those Darlins
June 22, 2009 1 Comment
Those Darlins Billboard feature via Reuters (slightly edited version that’s not as business-y; full story is in the June 27 issue of Billboard)
I’m not a huge country fan but these ladies are a lot of fun and they’re releasing their self-titled debut LP on July 7 through their own label. Pretty sure I’m going to see them in Pontiac next month (on July 15, the day after my birthday!) since I’ve heard their live show is great.
New album review: Grizzly Bear’s “Veckatimest”
June 19, 2009 Leave a comment
The entire Internet has been loving the hell out of the new Grizzly Bear album, and I am no exception.
Review of Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest (Warp) on Billboard.com (and in the June 27 issue of the print magazine)
And in case you haven’t seen this already (which you probably have?), here’s their freaky video for “Two Weeks”:
New live review + photos: Yeah Yeah Yeahs @ Clutch Cargo’s
May 28, 2009 Leave a comment
Review of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ May 27 show at Clutch Cargos in Pontiac, Mich., on Billboard.com
Love the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, I think It’s Blitz! is excellent, and this show was awesome except for two things: They played for barely more than an hour, and there was pretty much no crowd banter. Karen O is amazing and funny, so I really wish she would have said more … but what can ya do? Good times, well worth the very little sleep I got last night in order to get this in on time (ha, but not nearly as awful as almost pulling an all-nighter for that Modest Mouse show last summer).
New album review: St. Vincent’s “Actor”
May 15, 2009 Leave a comment
Review of St. Vincent’s Actor on Billboard.com (and in the May 23 issue of the magazine). Album is out now on 4AD.
New music feature: Phoenix
May 2, 2009 Leave a comment
*Update: The full version of the story is now online here!*
I’m sort of embarrassed to say I had never heard of Phoenix before I was assigned this story, but now I think they are awesome and their amazing upcoming album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (out May 26 on Glassnote), will be in heavy rotation this summer. This is my first lead music-section story in the magazine, so I would be lying if I said I wasn’t kind of geeking out about it.
Frontman Thomas Mars on the album title:
“It’s almost like unleashing a kid in a museum, or drawing a mustache on Mona Lisa. It’s something very childish. It’s messing up with something very iconic and I think maybe the fact that we grew up in Versailles, which is a very historical place … and the classical, all those names are very big weights and you can’t really have a future because you’re overwhelmed constantly by what happened before and what was greater before. I think it’s just something in that idea that you try to make something overwhelming, you try to make it your own and just mess up with it and have a chance to create something out of it.”
Video for Phoenix’s “Lisztomania”:
New album review: Camera Obscura’s “My Maudlin Career”
April 24, 2009 Leave a comment
Review of Camera Obscura’s My Maudlin Career on Billboard.com (and in the May 2 issue of the magazine). Album is out now on 4AD.
