The organizers of Treefort Music Fest, Boise’s biggest annual music event announced the initial lineup on Thursday, and it’s a promising and diverse crop of artists. The extravaganza will take place from March 31 through April 4.
Here’s the first wave in alphabetical order:
Alex Amen
All Them Witches
Philip Glass, widely considered to be the greatest living composer of classical music if not any genre, will deliver a series of 50th anniversary performances of his legendary “Einstein on the Beach” opera in the lead-up to his 90th birthday celebration in January.
Continue readingMastodon and Deafheaven let it riff in Garden City, Idaho, last night – a stone’s throw away from Boise, with the two metal bands at the topic of their game and finally touring on the same bill.
Here are some the images from the action-packed concert:
Godflesh and Neurosis are heralded as the shamen of post-metal, but heirs to the throne Isis helped evolve the avant garde end of heavy music into a transcendent and even mystical reimagining of the sound. Isis’ Oceanic is almost unanimously regarded as a classic record.
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Cheetah Chrome, guitarist for revered underground punk bands Rocket From the Tombs and Dead Boys, has died, his PR company announced Monday night.
The punk-rock underground legend, whose real name was Eugene Richard O’Connor, died Sunday in Nashville at age 71, according to Reprobate Media.
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David Yow’s could very well lingering in obscurity without his iconic tenure as the frontman of the Jesus Lizard (and Scratch Acid) before that. But he’s also sprinkled in some bizarre side projects along the way, including his abstract-art “music” album Tonight You Look Like a Spider, released in June 2013 on Joyful Noise; a stint as the vocalist for L.A. underground rock trio Qui that culminated in their 2007 album Love’s Miracle; and guest appearances at concerts by Shellac, Melvins, the Dicks, Girls Against Boys and Cop Shoot Cop.
But one of the most notable excursions Yow – who self-deported from the U.S. for Portugal during the Trump regime – took in his equally florid and flatulent career was when he took on the role of vocalist for influential punk band and one of Kurt Cobain’s favorite groups, Flipper. After forming in 1979 and taking a decade-long break from 1994 to 2004, Yow filled in for ailing singer Bruce Loose during shows in 2015. Four years later, Yow reprised his role as substitute vocalist for Flipper’s 40th Anniversary Tour in 2019; at that point, Yow was effectively a member of the band, which advertised their shows as “Flipper with David Yow.”
But little do fans know – if any – that Yow wasn’t a shoe-in for Flipper’s replacement vocalist. Chris Spencer, frontman of Unsane – another hugely influential noise-rock band from decades past, along with the Jesus Lizard – recently revealed in an interview with this writer: “I was really a big Flipper fan, despite them having 30-plus members over the years. The ethos of that band was just great.”
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This Q&A with The Format – an influential indie-rock duo consisting of Nate Ruess and Sam Means that reunited last year – was conducted on Friday, September 11, as part of The Bad Penny‘s ongoing On Tyranny series. The feature focuses on how fascism damages artists artistically, emotionally and personally; provides them with space to discuss their fear, anxiety and anger toward the Trump administration; increases solidarity among like-minded artists; and lets them set an example for other musicians (young ones in particular) that it is legal and just to criticize and protest.
Of the 100-plus artists with whom I’ve spoken for this series, you guys are actually putting your money where your mouth is and doing a lot of good work. Please tell my readership what you’ve been up to and the catalyst for getting involved helping immigrants.
Nate Ruess: We’re focusing right now on direct organization and “Saturdays in the Park.” When we’re on tour and in a city on a Saturday, we find a park and set up our PA system and let everybody come and watch us play for free. We’ll invite about eight to 12 different organizations to come and set up tables at this free show, and in between us playing a few songs acoustically, we’ll invite them onstage for five minutes to explain what their organization is all about and why people might want to join or get more information. It gives everybody an opportunity, instead of just feeling good about themselves for donating, to take more direct action.
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Excitement is building as the release date for the sixth studio album by red-hot Boston rock band Slothrust nears. But there’s some additional news that, while not as seismic as the unveiling of What They Grow in the Garden will be on September 18, band leader Leah Wellbaum (vocals, guitar) exclusively told The Bad Penny that Slothrust is now a foursome.
“We’re both multi-instrumentalists,” Wellbaum said during a video interview on Monday, referring to herself and drummer Will Gorin writing and recording music together in the studio. “He played bass on this last record [2021’s Parallel Timeline]. And it’s been really fun seeing him step into other instrumental roles.
“He’s obviously an incredible drummer and also a really great guitarist,” Wellbaum continued. “It was really fun to see what he would do, what he did on the bass to play with himself and to interact with the music that he was so involved in crafting. And because we both play all the band instruments, it’s fun to be able to explore as a two-piece in that way. That being said, it’s really nice to be able to perform with more people.”
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Just a couple of months after ‘90s indie-rock/post-hardcore legends Shudder to Think announced four autumn concerts for later this year, Monday brought even more seismic news: Craig Wedren and his band of misfits – well, they used to be in their younger years; now they’re matured into very fine gentlemen – are putting out their first record in an eyeball-bursting three decades.
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Deliberately or not, Maria BC broadened their horizons and engaged with the world in a way the artist hadn’t done before with Marathon, an album that teems with more sincerity and human emotion than the past two releases. Those records were certainly noteworthy, but Marathon felt like a truer work of art in that it recognized, if not empathized — an action that is actually very difficult to accomplish, even though marketing companies recklessly overuse and thus distort its meaning — with Americans and the hardships they are currently experiencing.
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