Listening to Mike Hadreas sing feels like an intrusion – as if stumbling into a confessional not meant for others to hear. The one-man band behind Perfume Genius, Hadreas quietly bares the details of his life with…
Rodrigo y Gabriela, the former thrash-metal band members from Mexico City, traveled to Dublin — without knowing any English — to find their musical way with nothing more than guitars and their hopes and dreams. Rodrigo Sanchez…
I’m still not convinced this album wasn’t a holdover from a hot, undiscovered band from the 70s that had been left (unforgivably) forgotten in the corner of a recording studio’s storage closet. The Russian Wilds, the third…
There’s a moment on the last Sleigh Bells record where Derek Miller lowers his guitar and hands the spotlight to Alexis Krauss. That moment is “Rill Rill”, the emotional center of Sleigh Bells’ bombastic debut Treats and…
If you keep track of the many sequels, remakes and retreads that the Hollywood movie machine churns out each year, you’re well aware that the state of originality in our culture should be at the top of…
I know what you’re thinking: “not another quirky Canadian indie pop band.” Then, of course, you are expecting me to follow up with a “but wait don’t write this band off yet!” sort of thing. For sure,…
If you’re like me, and most of the music world, you’re wondering when Fugazi will gather their collective gear and unite once more to blow our collectively numbed minds. It will happen, dear readers, mark my words.…
In articles about Erika Wennerstrom, singer and leader of the Heartless Bastards, the term “shy” crops up time after time. Whether meeting people at a party or fronting her band before a cast of thousands, Wennerstrom’s first…
You’re going to get exactly what you want from Mike Doughty. “I’m writing mostly drug stories,” he warns from the outset of the oh-so-appropriately titled memoir, The Book of Drugs. “I have them. People read them.” He…
In times of joblessness and Standard & Poors downgrades worlwide, Sugar + the Hi-Lows have created a lively, playful album. “With the climate of everything right now – with the economy – you could write the most…