Dusk, an atmospheric black-metal project from Costa Rica, expect the world to end. But rather than trying to pretend what they believe will happen actually won’t, Dusk seem to have decided to challenge and entertain themselves during the time we all have left. Read my review of their new album, Industrie, courtesy of New Noise.
Expect to hear a lot about the Jesus Lizard in the coming months, during which the underground rock legends will release their first studio album in 26 years and play a smattering of shows in support of it. But regardless of what articles get published about the band and its immortal frontman, David Yow, you won’t get to know him any better than in this 6,178-word, up-close-and-personal feature just published on New Noise.
From designing billboards for Frozen and Garfield: The Movie to terrifying a hotel room service worker on accident to witnessing a horrific disease claim the life of his mother to briefly meeting Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme to throwing a Led Zeppelin-themed party to resisting Jesus Lizard reunion gigs to getting torn to shreds by his cat to turning the sound of his garage door into a song to breaking his nose on New Year’s Eve to linking up with David Lynch, Yow truly tells all like he never did before—and probably never will again.
Roughly a decade after Beachwood Sparks co-founder/bassist Brent Rademaker stepped out to front his alt/country project GospelbeacH, he recently scuttled it when his principal posse reactivated. “GospelbeacH was a fluke. … We had our moment,” he says. Read my full interview with Rademaker in the latest edition of The Big Takeover, the last great indie-rock publication. Get yer copy here.
The San Francisco quartet hits the perfect balance of intimacy and exhibitionism on their short-but-sweet third album of harmony-based indie pop.
One can imagine that, when French Cassettes listened to the final result of their third album, Benzene, the band members quickly realized they were onto something special.
Check out my full review of French Cassettes’ brand-new record, Benzene, on FLOOD.
Instrumentalists Circles Around the Sun and singer/harpist Mikaela Davis may appear to be unlikely collaborators on the surface. But the former’s affinity for psych-rock and the latter’s proclivity for folk and country mesh to their mutual advantage on the recently released After Sunrise.
Read my joint interview with both parties in the latest edition of The Big Takeover, the last great indie-rock publication. Issue #94 just went on sale at bookstores and record shops (the cool ones, that is). But if you’re not in the mood to leave the house, snag a copy here and it’ll magically arrive in your mailbox.
Behold, the latest and greatest issue of The Big Takeover, the last great indie-rock publication created by inimitably cool dude Jack Rabid. In it you’ll find one of three feature pieces scribbled by yours truly, including a profile on long-running garage-rock gurus Meatbodies.
The magazine features our wide-ranging conversation with frontman and Ty Segall collaborator Chad Ubovich, who transparently opens up about achieving sobriety, the new Meatbodies album Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom (In the Red) and bouncing back after losing his ability to walk.
Issue #94 of The Big Takeover just went on sale at bookstores and record shops (the cool ones, that is). But if you’re not in the mood to leave the house, snag a copy here and it’ll magically arrive in your mailbox!
Check out my short-but-sweet profile on Treefort Music Fest Co-Founder and Director Eric Gilbert in the latest issue of Meridian Lifestyle. Or, if you don’t feel like running around town trying to locate a copy, read the online version here.
Check out my FLOOD review of To All Trains, which is presumably the final studio album by indispensable, iconoclastic noise-rock outfit Shellac. The analysis also includes some my reflections on the band’s guitarist/vocalist and one of rock’s most singular engineers ever, Steve Albini. (His song “Bad Penny,” created with his previous outfit Big Black, inspired the name of this website.)
Days before Albini suffered a fatal heart attack at his own Electrical Audio studio in Chicago, the underground legend agreed to talk with me about To All Trains (Touch and Go), 26 years after our first and only other conversation. A transcription of that first interview will surface online soon; sadly—but not a smidgen as sad as his passing—the second rendezvous never transpired.
What’s up next for the gang of not-quite-yet-geriatrics? In addition to one-off festival appearances, are David Yow and company creating their special brew of music: classic-rock, spray-painted with a punk-rock sensibility? Our probe begins with this article originally published via New Noise.
The Bad Penny (beta) 