Features
Cover Story: Tori Amos
Tori Amos Five Times A Lady Tori Amos has released a new album for Epic, American Doll Posse, with an ensuing tour that hits Chicago on November 5th. And if only such a simple explanation would suffice. As with all things in this Cornwall-based keyboardist’s 15-year career, there’s much more lurking just beneath the apparently […]
Billy Joe Shaver interview
Billy Joe Shaver Last Man Standing It’s a double-edged sword when your producer calls you “the last of his breed,” which is how producer John Carter Cash referred to Billy Joe Shaver. Publicly. In the press release accompanying Shaver’s newest album, Everybody’s Brother.
Flosstradamus interview
Flosstradamus Have Scene, Will Travel Flosstradamus are breaking a lot of rules. Not necessarily in the genre-crossing, style-mashing, critically lauded kind of way — though they’re certainly breaking those. Nor are they breaking them in the scene-restrictions-be-damned kind of way. At least not in this instance, though it’s apparent the boys scoff at such petty […]
High On Fire interview
High On Fire And The Art Of Getting Known It’s the middle of August, and High On Fire drummer Des Kensel and frontman/guitarist Matt Pike have been swooped up from their Oakland homes and flown to Philadelphia. Philly (Upper Darby to be exact) is home to Relapse Records — High On Fire’s label — and […]
José González interview
José González Smiling OnThe Inside Having touched down in New York for a one-off performance in advance of his new CD, In Our Nature, Argentinean-by-way-of-Sweden singer-songwriter/acoustic-guitar virtuoso José González walks into his American record company’s game room. It presents a completely different image from the one projected during the 2006 U.S. performances in support of […]
Josh Ritter interview
Josh Ritter Quick Change Guest spots on Letterman and Conan, accolades from both horror master Stephen King and The Boss Bruce Springsteen, superstardom in Ireland, and still Josh Ritter helps out his friends in need. It’s that Idaho upbringing. Appearing: October 16th at Park West in Chicago.
Maritime interview!
Maritime Is This Thing On? There’s an Internet outage at Davey von Bohlen’s house, and the downtime could save the 32-year-old Maritime frontman the burden of trudging through the day’s blog roll. He wouldn’t miss much. No new comments on the band’s Myspace page. No new Pitchfork review arguing “the man can’t sing” (like a […]
Cover Story: Common
Common Forever And Ever It’s hard not to treat an interview/lunch with South Side-born rapper Common like a solemn occasion. He prays before he eats (mahi mahi with a side of fries). He’s impeccably dressed — pink dress shirt, grey vest, striped tie, self-promoted Sofi newsboy cap — and his speaking voice is considerably lower […]
The Magic Numbers interview
The Magic Numbers Shyness Follows Prone to fits of giggling, Michele Stodart is just returning from her brother Romeo’s flat where the two 20-somethings engaged in a bit of a spat. While the occasional temper flare-up between siblings doesn’t surprise anyone who has one, the Stodarts’ unique position puts them in continuous close range and […]
Peter Himmelman interview
Peter Himmelman PIGEONHOLED! Peter Himmelman used to be famous for three reasons: 1) being a critically acclaimed rock ‘n’ roll singer-songwriter signed to major labels (Island in the 1980s, Epic in the ’90s), 2) being an observant Jew who became the first performer of note since the Scottish Olympian Eric Liddell to jeopardize his career […]
Michael McDermott interview
Michael McDermott Born Again, And Again, And Again It’s a flashback to the summer of 1991 — meeting in an Irish pub where everyone seems to know Michael McDermott, listening to stories behind the songs on his latest record. But there is something distinctly different about McDermott since we sat down for a cover-story interview […]
Colette Interview
Colette When Push Came To Shove As a DJ, Colette performs more than a hundred shows a year from the diverse worlds of Coachella, The Grammys, and an ongoing residency at Chicago’s very own Smart Bar, while simultaneously setting trends for females behind the turntables. As a recording artist, the switch hitter from Chi-town (who […]
Qui interview
THE LIZARD KING OF QUI David Yow, Resurrected David Yow spent the ’90s laying waste to the alternative scene he grew to represent. As frontman for Chicago noise-rock kingpins The Jesus Lizard, Yow made a career out of sadomasochistic stage antics. He mocked Soundgarden, hurled cans of beer at fans, rubbed strangers, and wrenched his […]
Cover Story: The Shins
The Shins When You Wince Upon A Star When Shins frontman James Mercer tells you he has taken up gardening, you wait for a chuckle that never comes while repressing a laugh of your own. It’s not that Mercer doesn’t have the right to garden, could be poorly equipped, or might be making a euphemism […]
Against Me! interview
Against Me! The Thankless Existence Every time Against Me! frontman Tom Gabel releases an album, he’s in the unique position of having to rebuild his fanbase. Every time. Appearing: August 3rd at Lollapalooza in Chicago.
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