With just a few hours till the “Matador at 21” kickoff, here’s another interview from the vaults. Previously unavailable online, this one’s with Robert Pollard of recently reunited legends Guided by Voices, who promise to do it up Vegas-style when they close the extravaganza Sunday night. Continue reading
With the “Matador at 21” extravaganza set to start later today, here’s another archival interview with one of the featured performers: Liz Phair. Conducted April 30, 2003, she talked about her then-upcoming self-titled release with Capitol; her Matador-issued debut, Exile in Guyville (“obviously my most important work”); and being “heartbroken” after the master tapes for that record were misplaced by Matador, Capitol – or someone else. Continue reading
Any indie-rock fan worth their salt is either talking or thinking about Matador’s big “Lost Weekend” in Las Vegas, which starts tomorrow. The lineup is the record label’s equivalent of MLB’s All-Century Team, feature the likes of Pavement, Guided by Voices, Superchunk, Yo La Tengo and oh-so-many more. Continue reading
Metalheads are fickle when it comes to approving a band’s metal cred. But it’s safe to say that your group qualifies if: 1) Fans can get arrested for listening to you; 2) You get arrested trying to record an album; and 3) You preach a message so radical that it makes some metalheads cringe.
Enter Orphaned Land, a metal band from Israel that meets all those criteria.
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When I caught up with Danny Ross in late August 2009, he was trying to get his feet wet – but not in the literal sense.
“It’s been rainy, uncharacteristically rainy, the last two months” in New York, he said.
A little over a year later, the singer/pianist/multi-instrumentalist/composer has gotten them more than just a little wet. Ross is now fully drenched in music accolades, and on Saturday night, he headlines a show at NYC’s prestigious Mercury Lounge. Continue reading
For the first installment in a new Bad Penny feature, “Great Debate,” Israel’s TV Buddhas conduct an intra-band, intra-family discussion about the merits of eating at the local supermarket – or taking the more extravagant route: eating at an actual restaurant.
Which place causes one Buddha to feel like he’s a balloon? Who loathes pizza? And what do at least two of them agree truly is yummy? Read on and find out in this endearing contribution straight from the band. Continue reading
In the latest installment of “Cover Me,” power-pop prince Mark Bacino re-envisions his latest album, Queens English (DreamCrush/ Redeye), which dropped earlier this summer on Amazon and iTunes. In addition to granting the Bad Penny a downloadable MP3 (scroll to the bottom of the post), he wonders what the songs would sound like if they were performed by Steve Earle, Jeff Tweedy, even Archie & Edith Bunker – and seals it all with a Kiss. Continue reading
Cassorla – an indie-rock band with jazz and soul tendencies – should probably be named “Cassor-pa-ny-la”: They call Los Angeles home these days but were born in North Philadelphia, and dwelled for a spell in Bed-Stuy and Brooklyn in between. Continue reading
When’s the last time you heard an indie-rock band – or any rock band … or, hell, any band at all – pine for the day when D’Angelo would cover one of its songs? Leave it to Los Angeles’ unpredictable and imaginative troupe Cassorla to make such a wish. Continue reading
“I still get the feeling that everyone’s pissed off and frustrated with us because we don’t sound like we did in 1993,” Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo told me on April 13, 2002. Going through one of the most tumultuous periods of its career, the bandmembers – who had recently fired their manager, and were bucking their PR and A&R reps at Geffen – had just “reclaimed control of ours lives,” in the words of Cuomo. Continue reading
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