When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with making mix tapes (weren’t we all?). My best friend had one that her parents had made. The A side was titled Irretrievable Youth. It was full of fun, upbeat songs, like “Bitchin’ Camaro” by The Dead Milkmen, basically songs about living life to the fullest and
After their outstanding performance at The Woods last Sunday night, I headed out back with Kali and Matt (and later Graham) from Portland’s The Ascetic Junkies. We chatted for a bit, about musical guilty pleasures, Boston vs. Portland and other miscellany. Check out my video interview with The Ascetic Junkies below: In addition to being
Bedroom-crafted tracks meet otherworldly vocals in an exciting new noise pop duo from England, Echo Lake. Echo Lake’s debut EP, Young Silence, is a dreamlike trip through strange worlds. One track can sound like you’re floating through the air on a cloud, while the next feels like floating through a vast undersea landscape. I’m not
Portland’s Mississippi Studios was packed last night for the Nicole Atkins/Cotton Jones show. People who showed up early enough to see The Ascetic Junkies open were the lucky ones, though. In spite of their austere-sounding name, The Ascetic Junkies play with pure hedonistic abandon. They’re a pop band. Or are they a bluegrass band? They
Oh, Rocky Votolato, your beautiful voice and sweet songs have been missed. We wondered where you had gone. Your last album, The Brag And Cuss was quite somber, but we loved it all the same. Now we hear that you were feeling low and took a break from the world, quite literally. You did a
Smart, jazzy piano-driven pop is The Sound Of Growing Up. Justin Kao’s Boston band releases its debut EP today, Drifting, a short yet powerful collection of songs filled with punchy vocals, ukelele and horns. The sound is simple, and yet the simplicity is the beauty. It’s honest and bare, kind of like we all are
The boys of San Diego’s Range Rover took a moment out of their time working on their debut album to answer some of my burning questions about their eclectic sound, their multi-layered tracks and their musical process. Also in this post: A new song, “There’s Nothing For Me Here” for your listening enjoyment. Look for
Listening to the alt-country duo The Civil Wars’ debut album put me through the emotional wringer. Joy Williams and John Paul White write and perform heart-wrenching duets full of breathy vocals accompanied by sparse acoustic instruments. With voices like theirs that harmonize so beautifully, that’s all they really need. The subject matter of the songs-
Before their awesome show at The Woods last Saturday, I sat down with all of The Angry Orts for a chat. Over champagne and PBRs, we discussed nerdy words, what’s on their iPod(s) and whether they get more action now that they’re in a band. ***This video may contain language that is offensive to you.
Range Rover, a trio of teens from San Diego, CA are hard at work on their sample-filled, experimental synth pop debut album. You hear ‘sample’ and you think “oh no, another DJ record,” right? Wrong. Range Rover is unabashedly original, incorporating the weirdest noises into densely layered mini-symphonies that please the mind for their pure