Recent Articles in Interviews
Albert Hammond, Jr: All Aboard the Happy Rocket
The new Albert Hammond, Jr. record was almost called Cockpit Voice Recordings if you can believe it. But the curly-headed guy with the guitar worried it wouldn’t be light enough; too “serious in the wrong way,” even. He worries about these things.
Now Hear This: Sarandon: No Cardigans Please, Twee is Simply Awful
The UK’s Sarandon like to call themselves a pop band with a short attention span. The name of their latest album, Kill Twee Pop, (released in the U.S. on Slumberland Records), seems to say it all: this is no cutsie neo-folk act, but rather, a spastic, twitching garage punk act that delights both in mashing […]
The Kooks: Recording with ‘Big’ Grit
The Kooks have come a long way from our first interview in the winter of 2005. I first met the then-unknown band at John Henry’s Rehearsal Studios in King’s Cross, a ramshackle section of London. Our interviews launched from there to a snazzy rooftop in Brooklyn and now to a hotel room in Kansas City. […]
Spiritualized: Everything in its Right Space
Jason Pierce has this clever go-to riff when faced with the suggestion that his lyrics are overwhelmingly autobiographical. It’s certainly not a stretch to come to such assumptions over a canon so mired in self-destruction and dripping with narcotica.
“I say in every interview that when you listen to Ray Charles singing, ‘I Can’t Stop Loving […]
Bloody Social: Who Needs Labels Anyway?
Bloody Social is a downtown NYC act that plays by their own rules, without feeling the need to cozy up to a coddling publicity rep or bow down to the first label throwing them a bone. They might just be one of the few real rock and roll bands based in this glitzier-by-the-minute city. For […]
Supergrass: Lasting like Diamonds
Life is confusing, and the UK’s super-darlings known as Supergrass are the first to admit it. In fact, their latest album, Diamond Hoo Ha, applauds that fact. As drummer Danny Goffey describes the loose concept behind the release, “You’re never quite in control of what you’re doing. We’ve all got calamities and stuff but you’ve […]
Switches Are At Full Tilt
This young UK act has no need to switch it on. They’re already on fire, stirring up our stages and television screens across America. Not only have they already played Jimmy Kimmel Live, but their single “Drama Queen” is the theme to the MTV show Legally Blonde: The Search for the Next Elle Woods and […]
The Long Blondes: A Fashionable Day Job
It’s hard to believe it’s been three years since I chatted to the Long Blondes in the swanky depths of the Tribeca Grand Hotel (when Saturday nights meant hot new bands and free champagne!) Time has flown and Sheffield’s boy-girl quintet have gone from being “the UK’s best unsigned band” to a favorite among critics […]
Calvin Harris: A Dance from Kylie Minogue to Coachella
Bound for a flight to sunny LA from gloomy Glasgow, Calvin Harris seemed ready for a hectic weekend playing gigs in California, Coachella and a sold-out gig at NYC’s Webster Hall. After wowing the UK with his debut I Created Disco and collaborating with some of dance-pop’s hottest names (think Kylie and Sophie Ellis-Bextor) it […]
Tilly and the Wall: Children of the Rock
Remembering to be a kid is a huge part of rock. The Who made an anthem out of it. Kurt Cobain had a ‘k’ tattooed on his arm. Kids know what’s up, largely because they don’t know what ‘up’ is yet. Tilly and the Wall’s guitarist Derek Presnall elaborates, “People tend to focus on the […]
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