Features
Cover Story: Ronnie Wood
Stomp And Circumstance You want Ronnie Wood to be that kind of rock star: holed up in a stark white mansion, drifting aimlessly from room to room at 2 p.m. in a bathrobe and satin pajama bottoms spilling a glass of wine and yelling through the house to the wife he’s had for two weeks […]
Interview: Frightened Rabbit
Held Up For All To See Dig if you will the picture: Early evening on a pleasant Chicago day in August (which by definition is an anomaly) as throngs of people huddle in a space shaded by a canopy of trees and foliage found off of the beaten path near Grant Park. The last day […]
Cover Story: John Legend & The Roots
There’s Still A Riot Goin’ On In politics, as in music, timing is everything. In 2000, reborn George W. Bush rode the religious right’s disgust with the Clintons into the White House, just as Barack Obama’s galvanizing ’04 DNC address rekindled idealism when America had grown tired of sucking down fear. In contrast, the roads […]
Jimmy Eat World interview
Searching For A Former Clarity Midway through Jimmy Eat World’s seventh studio effort, Invented (Interscope), the album presents its immediate and undeniable pop apex in “Coffee And Cigarettes.” The song finds the band at its power-pop: finest all huge harmonized hooks and crunching riffs buzzing just under frontman Jim Adkins’ honey-laden, eternally boyish vocals.
Mumford & Sons interview
India ‘N America Sure, there are shiny new electric toys that can make a rock band sound like a million bucks. But for the rustic-minded Marcus Mumford – and his folksy four-piece Mumford & Sons – the older and dustier the musical instrument, the better. “I just bought a hundred-year-old harmonium,” the 23-year-old enthuses. “And […]
Eric Mantel Interview
Coming Unstuck Anyone in town who ever spent a split second in a blues bar or rock club from the 1970s through today has likely run into Chicago-based guitar slinger Eric Mantel.
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 […]
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 […]
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 that run deeply through the Aboriginal culture of his […]
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’ […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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