Mother Sun are much more than just a cleverly named psychedelic rock band. Hailing from British Columbia, the quartet are hometown heroes, having helped firm up the province’s indie-rock scene through their participation in various local bands. Expect a lot of smiles in the crowd when they play two sets of killer, off-kilter — but certainly not off-putting — music at this year’s Treefort Music Fest later this month.
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Every March, Treefort Music Fest brings a boatload of surprises to music aficionados in Boise, Idaho, and beyond. Those surprises help shape the evolving identity of the ambitious festival from year to year. While the newest installment will feature about 500 bands, it’ll have a wider scope than ever before. Ahead of launching a series profiling the majority of international artists playing Treefort, the Bad Penny also recently caught up with Eric Gilbert, Treefort co-founder and festival director, to learn more about its increasing geographical reach.
Continue readingCheck out my latest Signing Story for Music Connection — this one on Nashville songwriter Jared Conrad — right here.
After recent conversations with Dark Tranquillity and At the Gates (soon to be published), I had the pleasure of speaking with the other band comprising Gothenburg, Sweden’s “Big Three”: In Flames. Guitarist Björn Gelotte — who joined the band in 1995, shortly after its inception — talked at length about the recently released Foregone (In Flames LP #14). Check out the piece on New Noise; a full transcript of our conversation is forthcoming.
If you’re a fan of Totimoshi, desert rock, Tool, alt-rock, Queens of the Stone Age, Fatso Jetson, Alain Johannes, the Jesus Lizard or indie rock in general, you need to familiarize yourself with All Souls. My wide-ranging conversation with frontman and all-around-good-guy Antonio Aguilar is up on New Noise‘s website. Don’t miss it.
Make the determination yourself by checking out my epic, sprawling conversation with the New York black-metal band’s frontman. Published earlier this week on New Noise‘s website, Paul Delaney reveals why he almost had to step away from making music altogether, the most important person in his life and why he still enjoys living it — even if “the prognosis is quite negative” on Black Anvil’s latest album.
Yuvees frontman Brendon Broome began developing a taste for great music before he was even born.
By way of explanation, his mom attended one of Nirvana’s final shows while she was pregnant with him.
“I was in utero for the In Utero tour,” he cracked to the Bad Penny earlier this week.
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One of the greatest American composers of all time, Burt Bacharach passed away earlier today at at 94. In celebration of him — and his long, unparalleled life — I unearthed my previously unpublished full interview with the beloved Bacharach on November 14, 2003.
Our conversation took place eight days after my mother and I saw him and Ron Isley perform their collaborative album, Here I Am, with a full orchestra at the Wilshire Theatre in Beverly Hills, California. Tears gushed copiously onstage and in the crowd as Isley and Bacharach delivered one of the most touching concert performances of that — or any other — year.
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Did someone say they wanted a 4,536-word feature on Dark Tranquillity and Halo Effect frontman Mikael Stanne? Check out my very long conversation with one of the very best metal frontmen:
Charles Bukowski famously said: “Potential doesn’t mean a thing. You’ve got to do it. Almost every baby in a crib has more potential than I have.”
Whether or not Andrew Becker knows Bukowski’s axiom, he might’ve had tongue in cheek when naming his solo project “Human Potential.” But, sarcasm or not, Becker is continuing to raise the bar — or pushing his potential even further, as it were.
The former drummer for Dischord Records’ Medications, Los Angeles-based Becker formed Human Potential about a decade ago so he could do his own thing. Each Human Potential release demonstrates Becker’s ever-expanding tool kit of musicianship. His latest single and video, “Hoosi, No!” dropped today, and they’re no exception.
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