All Entries in the "Features" Category
Cover Story: Kiss
Mt. Rushmore, Disneyland . . . And Kiss?
This is no place for modesty. Kiss drummer Eric Singer describes the band as a piece of Americana, like Universal Studios or Disneyland. “Whether it’s going to Mount Rushmore or Yellowstone Park or the Statue Of Liberty, I say Kiss is one of the Wonders Of The World. [...]
Menomena interview
Three’s Company
Justin Harris would like to take this moment to clarify some things about his band. The shorthand on the new Menomena record, Mines (Barsuk), concerns an outfit on the brink – three men at the end of their respective ropes with each other and the tense batch of songs documenting the turmoil. Harris more or [...]
Goo Goo Dolls interview
Up Off The ‘Mats
For some reason – and he’s not sure why, exactly – John Rzeznik houses every last award he’s won with his barnstorming Buffalo outfit The Goo Goo Dolls in a trophy case located in his kitchen. And after 24 years and nine albums together, the man has assembled quite a collection – [...]
Xavier Rudd & Izintaba interview
And Then There Were Three
Call Australia’s Xavier Rudd the thinking man’s Jeff Spicoli. With a blonde mop of tousled hair he certainly looks the part, but underneath the hippie-dippy prose and a near spiritual devotion to surfing lies a soul attuned to the still waters than run deeply through the Aboriginal culture of his homeland [...]
7th Heaven interview
25 years, 700 songs
Richie Hoffher has sacrificed for his band. “Man, I lived with my parents ’til I was 35.” In between those rare nights sleeping in his own bed, Hoffher, the co-founder/guitarist, reinvested nearly every dollar he earned back into his band, 7th Heaven, playing over 250 gigs a year, sleeping on friends’ floors, [...]
The New Pornographers interview!
Inter-Niecian Support
In 2005, with Neko Case’s burgeoning solo career making her increasingly unavailable to regularly perform with the other seven members of The New Pornographers, the then primarily Vancouver-based band’s chief “orchestrator” and songwriter A.C. “Carl” Newman turned to his niece to be Case’s live replacement. Lest one think this was pure nepotism in action, [...]
Ozzy Osbourne interview!
The Niceman Cometh
I hate to let the secret out, but the Prince Of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne is actually rather lighthearted these days. And well he should be. He’s alive!
Appearing: August 17th at First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park.
Slayer interview!
Surgical Precision
Things aligned nicely for Slayer in early 2010. World Painted Blood, the group’s 11th studio record, was just released in November and entered the Billboard chart at 12, their third-highest debut in nearly 30 years together. The band would kick off the United States tour cycle in fine fashion by co-headlining with fellow thrash [...]
Tegan And Sara interview!
Balancing Act
Twin girls who play poppish punk rock are bound to attract attention, and as their success grows so will their cadre of obsessive fans. Tegan And Sara, the first names of the Canada-born Quin sisters, have more than their share of Web sites devoted to them, not the least of which was an “everything [...]
Cover Story: Pitchfork Music Festival
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
There’s a professional protocol that implores journalists to leave themselves out of the story. Once during a Civil Rights rally, Dr. Martin Luther King scolded a news photographer for coming to the aid of a beaten marcher instead of doing his job objectively. That’s probably an overzealous comparison, but [...]
Foxy Shazam interview
Splendor In The Grass
very artist has their own particular relaxation rituals, their own unique way of winding down after a grueling tour. But for Eric Nally — enjoying a few days off in his native Cincinnati before his coliseum-rocking combo Foxy Shazam headed back on the road again — there was only one way to [...]
Hey Champ interview
Mr. Brightside
“I was literally [not] too thrilled about being in a band with some 13-year-old,” Saam Hagshenas remembers. “I’m like, ‘I drive around, I don’t wanna be with some middle-school kid.’”
The Gaslight Anthem interview
Be Here Now
“Now that the record’s over and we can look back on it, I really enjoyed the record. I think everybody in the band did a really nice job and played well and, for the most part, we enjoyed the process. It always feels like an accomplishment to me, just to finish a record: [...]
Cover Story: Sarah McLachlan & Heart
Cover Story: Lilith Fair
All’s Fair In Love & Tours
From 1997 until 1999, Lilith Fair was one of the highest-grossing and most attention-grabbing traveling music festivals across the globe. The brainchild of Sarah McLachlan didn’t just break down genre barriers and racial boundaries, but also gave women artists of all associations a massive platform, while simultaneously [...]
Against Me interview
My Hometown
Tom Gabel began Against Me as an acoustic, “anarcho-punk” solo project. It’s a fact endlessly repeated in magazine articles, and with good reason. In rock history, countless artists have taken a box knife to the walls put around them by fans and media, but few have so openly (and successfully) agitated hardcore, older fans [...]
