Carl Newman must have a subscription to US Weekly. His between-song banter during the New Pornographers show consisted mainly of naming off random celebs he claimed to have seen in the halls of the band's hotel, at the coffee shop, on the street. Assuming he could see out into the crowd during the first night of a two-night stand at the Henry Fonda, he would have seen more. For a tour in support of the band's latest album Challengers, the...
A little background is required for reviewing Sebadoh’s debut album. It was 1988 and Lou Barlow, having been bounced out from under the oppressive regime that was quickly becoming J Mascis’ Dinosaur Jr by the guitarist himself, went back to the absolute basics of his songwriting; once again making lo-fi basement tapes and refining his craft. He reconnected with Western Mass. scenester Eric Gaffney and the duo began passing a 4-track tape recorder back and forth—eventually cobbling together about fifteen...
Their records have gone platinum, they are currently nominated for three Latin Grammys, and have played sold out shows for years. Yet Mexico's Zoé have somehow stayed out of the limelight in the United States—partially because only one of their three albums has been released in the U.S. and it is nearly impossible to find. If you're fortunate, Amoeba might have a single copy on hand. Luckily, they do tour California, Texas, New York and a few other areas rather...
In a night that started with a photopass fiasco, where my new pal Clarence, the head security dude at the Fonda in L.A., gave me some sort of code to tell the guy guarding the entrance to the photo pit that allowed me to get up close and personal with one of the most prolific and understated bands of this decade, Midlake. The Denton, Texas-based band is on the final stretch of a 35-date (or so) tour that ends with...
On Civilians, Joe Henry has locked into the busted shuffle of the patrons at the Boulevard Of Broken Dreams (as John Hammond did on Wicked Grin and Nathan Wiley on Bottom Dollar Baby) that finds the singer articulating modest hopes, dreams and failures as a survivor of them rather than their chronicler. This time out, Henry doesn’t scale back the production of the album in order to express the corrosion of his characters and observations of them as much as...
If there were any doubts that Sean Lennon was acutely aware of who he is, starting a conversation with him dispels them within seconds. From birth, Lennon’s last name has provided him with a legacy and a lineage assuring him the platform he’d need to be a star at whatever he tried—it just happened to work out that he was also an excellent singer/songwriter—but the double-edged sword of that same name and lineage also functionally ensured that both the man...
After playing their last gig in 1998 and breaking up in 1999, The Jesus & Mary Chain reunited this spring for a handful of high-profile club and festival dates in the U.S. and Europe which began with a triumphant main stage performance in front of an estimated 10,000 fans at Coachella. And now…for those of you living under a rock, The Jesus and Mary Chain have reunited once more with a new song, “All Things Must Pass” being featured on...
Arts & Crafts, the purveyors of all things Canadian, continue to bring more of their countrymen into the fold with the announcement of last week's dual signing of The Stills and the Constantines. The Stills are heading into the studio to record their follow-up to their last album Without Feathers, and are chronicling the recording process on www.thestills.net. Meanwhile, The Constantines are also working on a new album, and have joined the Arts & Crafts fold to release it in...
The night air was full of excitment and danger as the boys from Division Day stopped by Ground Control Radio. In addition to spinning some of their favorite tracks and talking about their forthcoming, long-awaited album Beartrap Island, the band blessed us with some live acoustic renditions of "Beartrap Island" and "Colorguard." In return, we gave them a coloring book. It's more awesome than it sounds. But that's not all. During the course of the show, GC's Mark had a...