Steve Cooper will admit he’s more than a rapper, although he doesn’t mind the title. He’s also a booty-shakin, falsetto-singing, public policy-workin’ kid from the East coast who is using the good fortune he’s finding in Los Angeles as he inches toward fame. So, you moved here 6 months ago from NY. Do you think you can “make it” easier here than in NYC? It’s not even close. Physically the labels aren’t there. The community of musicians is much bigger,...

Q and A with Frontman, Mark Salomon 1.) So you guys are coming on ten years of service in the rock n’ roll game, how do you keep the momentum going and also, how do you keep yourself inspired? Well… not really sure on momentum – it’s either there or it isn’t. We’ve tried to create our own in the past and that’s always been a really bad idea. There’s a word for momentum generated by the people in need...

They’re from L.A. and somehow these BeeGee-ified rockers slipped under our radar, but pretty soon it will be hard for you to miss Under the Influence of Giants as their debut release picks up speed and they begin a series of tours. If we were one of those rags who did the whole “recommended if you like” tag we’d say, “recommended if you like Yacht Rock.” And if you knew what we meant by that, then we’d make out with...

Band member name answering: Noah Lit What you do in band: Load the van and sing. 1. Boring starter question: How did you guys meet? Internet chatrooms: gardeners.com, knittingcircle.net and vigilanties.gov. 2. Follow up boring question: How did you pick the name Oliver Future? My great-grandfather was an entertainer in the famous Russian postwar scene with a band called Oliver and the Future of Workers of the World. He died in a bizarre ballet accident but the name lives on....

The Bronx are the kind of band that can come off as pretty damn scary if you don’t know them. Singer Matt Caughthran’s vocals are gut-wrenching, spine-curdling wails that will shake the soul out of you. Their music is louder than loud, they can drink you under the table anytime anywhere, have totaled not one, but two tour vans (if my memory serves correct) and in general, just aren’t fucking around. But fortunately for me, I’ve known Bronx founding member...

The last time a band switched gears so drastically—potentially missing out on super-stardom—was The Mars Volta when they ditched At the Drive-in. They trusted their guts and felt like they were going in the wrong direction creatively—they needed something more. Gosling have a similar story, except each member of the old band stayed around for the new one, all the while retaining the endless creativity and musicianship that can only materialize from years and years of playing together. The result...

Editors have enjoyed a rather swift rise to the top as far as British bands in the U.S. go. Nearly half a year after playing cozy L.A. venue Spaceland, the band sells out Hollywood’s Avalon theatre that boasts a near 1,500 capacity. Back home in the U.K., the band’s ascent has been far more rapid. From modest shows to headlining festivals and a Mercury Prize nomination, Editors were anointed U.K.’s next big thing in a year that also saw that...

ARTIST: Sounds of the Underground Tour 2006 VENUE: Gibson Amphitheater, Los Angeles, CA DATE: 10-28-06 REVIEW BY: Mark Ziemke Grassroots sensibilities, camaraderie and devotion are just a few of the characteristics that describe the Sounds of the Underground Tour that took place this summer in North America. Host to a very unlikely collection of bands such as As I Lay Dying, Trivium, Cannibal Corpse and The Black Dahlia Murder, this tour was zig-zagging the nation, going head to head with...

In 2005, prior to being sucked into the same online buzz machine that launched a thousand Arctic Monkeys, Voxtrot was just another idiosyncratic indie pop band amid a sea of such bands in Austin, Texas. Today, they’ve established a dedicated cult following thanks as much to their literate, Anglo-informed brand of music—somewhere between the melodrama of The Smiths and Belle & Sebastian’s faux-orchestral grandeur—as untold kilobytes of ecstatic essays linked feverishly across the blogosphere. Led by Ramesh...

Perhaps someone forgot to tell members of the National that they don’t always have to try so hard. That, like a string on a guitar, any performance will eventually snap after being wound tighter and tighter. But maybe the band is used to the snap after years of touring, because they seem to do it once every other song or so. The trying so hard is second nature now. And it’s only getting better, proved by the evening’s show with...