Spinner

Music Tapes' Traveling Imaginary Show: Julian Koster Takes Fans on Musical Journey

Eric R. Danton — 2012-11-03T10:35:00 00:00

Julian Koster claims to trace his family lineage back through generations of Romanian circus performers, and he's shown a fondness over the years for unconventional tours and concerts. So commissioning a circus tent of sorts as part of the Traveling Imaginary, his latest project with the Music Tapes, is really just the next logical step.

The Music Tapes debuted a version of the Traveling Imaginary Friday night at the Flywheel Arts Collective in Easthampton, Mass., a small DIY space in part of what used to be an old New England town hall. Koster and bandmates spent the afternoon building a venue within the venue, erecting their red-and-white striped tent for an evening performance of music, a movie, stories and games for an audience of a few dozen.

Steely Dan's Donald Fagen Explores Aging, Death and Sweet Funk on 'Sunken Condos'

Eric R. Danton — 2012-10-22T16:30:00 00:00

Filed under: News, New Music, Exclusive

Danny Clinch

Donald Fagen doesn't hesitate when he's asked to describe the theme of his new solo album, Sunken Condos. "Aging and death," the Steely Dan singer tells Spinner, deadpan.

The album is Fagen's first solo release since Morph the Cat in 2006, which was the last entry in a narrative cycle stretching back to The Nightfly, Fagen's 1982 solo debut. Sunken Condos, he says, represents a deliberate break from the semi-autobiographical Nightfly trilogy.

"I'm glad to be done with it, too. It got to be a little oppressive, psychologically speaking," he says. "It imposed certain strictures on what I could write about, what I could do. I felt that I had to do that because I felt I was compelled to finish that cycle. This kind of freed me up to write about different things, although in a way, writing without Walter, I tend to write about my own journey anyway."

Red Hot Chili Peppers' Chad Smith Takes Lead Role in Bombastic Meatbats

Eric R. Danton — 2012-10-03T13:30:00 00:00

Filed under: News, Exclusive, Spinner Interview

Warrior Records

Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith has learned plenty of lessons during 25 years in the music business, but one resonates louder than the rest these days: "It's all about live performance," Smith tells Spinner.

It's obvious on the grand scale of the Chili Peppers, who have spent most of the summer filling stadiums in Europe. It's also apparent on a much smaller scale, in Smith's funk side project, the Bombastic Meatbats, which recently released a concert album, Live Meat and Potatoes. Recorded in 2009 at a tiny Los Angeles club called the Baked Potato, the two-CD set finds the band in its element.

Patterson Hood Tries Writing a Book, Ends Up With 'Autobiographical' Solo LP

Eric R. Danton — 2012-09-12T12:00:00 00:00

Filed under: News, New Music, Exclusive

Thirty Tigers

Drive-By Truckers leader Patterson Hood was planning to write a book while on tour with the band a couple years ago, and he ended up with a collection of songs instead. Hood's latest solo album, Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance, grew out of the book project he shelved midway through.

"It kind of happened accidentally," Hood tells Spinner. "I didn't really set out to write a record. It just occurred to me that I had one. And it was a nearly finished record as far as the writing goes when it dawned on me that I had a record."

JJAMZ 'Suicide Pact': Indie Supergroup Emerges From Drunken Karaoke

Eric R. Danton — 2012-09-04T15:02:00 00:00

Filed under: News, New Music, Exclusive

Press Here

It's not that members of JJAMZ weren't willing to consider other names for the band, it's that they didn't need to.

The musicians, friends for most of the past decade, conceived of and formed the group (pronounced "Juh-Jamz") the same night they started writing songs for their recent debut, Suicide Pact. It all stemmed from a karaoke outing when Jason Boesel (Rilo Kiley, Bright Eyes), James Valentine (Maroon 5), Alex Greenwald (Phantom Planet), Michael Runion and Z Berg (the Like) were more than a few drinks in.

"We were dismayed by the selection of songs and clientele, and we realized we had all the makings of a band there," says Berg, whose karaoke standbys usually include "Criminal" by Fiona Apple or teaming up with Greenwald on "California Dreamin'" by the Mamas and the Papas. "I've never made such a good decision at that time of the night."

Communist Daughter's Johnny Solomon Finds Comfort in Sobriety

Eric R. Danton — 2012-07-30T15:15:00 00:00

Filed under: News, New Music, Exclusive

Stephanie Colgan

"Speed of Sound" is the centerpiece of Lions & Lambs, the new EP from Minneapolis band Communist Daughter. For a while, it was also the hardest song for bandleader Johnny Solomon to perform.

The tune originally appeared on Soundtrack to the End, Communist Daughter's 2010 debut. It was a record that sounded like it was about getting sober, and Solomon didn't dispute that interpretation. Except that he wasn't sober.

"I had gotten sober a little bit, but I fell way back into it, and that's when Soundtrack to the End came out," Solomon tells Spinner. "'Speed of Sound,' especially in the lyrics, there was a lot of cry for help in there. I was referencing a lot of drugs I was using, and people thought I sober. It was the most depressing thing I'd written."

Beachwood Sparks Recapture, Update Classic Sound on 'The Tarnished Gold'

Eric R. Danton — 2012-07-02T13:37:00 00:00

Filed under: News, New Music, Exclusive

Jim Goodrich

Beachwood Sparks' new album, The Tarnished Gold, is the country-rock band's first LP in a decade, during which the group dispersed to grad school, other musical projects and life in general.

Yet even though the band broke up, Beachwood Sparks was never really finished -- just worn out from the road after releasing two LPs and an EP in the early '00s.

"We always still stayed close and talked to each other, because we started the band out of just being really good friends," singer and guitarist Chris Gunst tells Spinner. "When we would talk together on the phone, we'd always be like, it would be really fun to play again, but we didn't have the impetus to do it."

Cory Branan: 'Yelling Redneck' Gets Nasty on New Album 'Mutt'

Eric R. Danton — 2012-05-23T15:00:00 00:00

Filed under: News, New Music, Exclusive

Joshua Black Wilkins

The title of Cory Branan's new album, Mutt, is the same word he uses when people ask him to describe what kind of music he plays.

"It's graspable, you know? Like, what kind of music does Tom Waits play? He gets to do what he wants, he pulls from whatever form, roots music or klezmer or whatever," Branan tells Spinner. "So I was like, 'Yep, that's what I do.' It's just a big Cuisinart, a big blender of stuff."

Inside that big blender you'll find elements of blues, folk, country and rock 'n' roll, paired with vivid lyrics at once poignant and wry. Waits is an influence, of course, and so are Leonard Cohen and especially John Prine, the veteran singer and songwriter who's been a country/folk cult favorite since the early 1970s.

"I don't know how I missed them until my mid-20s, but they were like the Holy Grail," says Branan, a Mississippi native.

Horse Feathers' 'Cynic's New Year': An Accomplishment, Breakthrough or Not

Eric R. Danton — 2012-04-30T15:30:00 00:00

Filed under: News, New Music, Exclusive

Brian Danielson

Justin Ringle has come nearly full-circle on Cynic's New Year, the new album from his indie-folk band Horse Feathers.

Ringle started playing quiet, rootsy songs when he moved from Idaho to Portland, Ore., to give himself a break from the loud-all-the-time rock-band dynamic he had spent years navigating.

"I kind of burned out on that dynamic," Ringle tells Spinner. "After playing in bands in serial fashion, I kind of got tired of competing with the volume of a drummer and a bass player and the attitude that's inherently involved in playing louder rock music."

The Roots, SXSW: Questlove and Co. Blur Genres, Follow Inspired Bob Mould Set

Eric R. Danton — 2012-03-18T11:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News

Gilbert Carrasquillo, FilmMagic

With no official duties at SXSW, the Roots came to party Saturday at Mohawk, blowing through 90 booty-rattling minutes of hip-hop, soul, funk, rock 'n' roll -- look, they can do it all, OK?

Serving as the musical anchor on 'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon' has turned the Philadelphia hip-hop band into one of the tightest musical units you will ever see, and they proved it over and over in the headline slot at a day party hosted by MOG.

For one thing, it was surely the only performance at SXSW to include a tuba breaking it down, on 'You Got Me.' And did anyone else do a live mashup of 'Sweet Child O' Mine,' 'Bad to the Bone' and 'Who Do You Love?' No, they did not. Also, DJ Jazzy Jeff made an appearance late in the set, helping with a massive call-and-response drum break.

Band of Skulls Rock 'Sweet Sour' Tracks Live at Milk Studios -- Video

Eric R. Danton — 2012-03-15T11:00:00 00:00

Filed under: News, Exclusive, Q + A

Steve Gullick

Like most young groups, the gritty alt-rockers Band of Skulls spent time opening for bigger acts after releasing their 2009 debut, 'Baby Darling Doll Face Honey.' The English trio regarded those support gigs as an excellent learning opportunity.

"We did quite a big show with Muse, and seeing how bigger bands on a huge tour, how they make their stage show work and how their set lists are structured, you learn new things each time," singer and bassist Emma Richardson tells Spinner. "It was to our advantage, really, to support bands like that."

Also, it was a chance to win over new fans, which must have worked: With the new album 'Sweet Sour' out now, the group is headlining shows at respectable-sized venues on a U.S. tour that starts at SXSW this spring.

Ting Tings Return With 'Sounds From Nowheresville' After Depressing Berlin Stint

Eric R. Danton — 2012-03-13T14:00:00 00:00

Filed under: News, Exclusive, RPM, Q + A

Tom Oxley

When the Ting Tings came home after three years on the road, it took bandmates Katie White and Jules de Martino months before they felt they had decompressed enough to write songs for the follow-up to their 2008 debut, 'We Started Nothing.'

After feeling normal enough to start again, the band spent a dreary eight months holed up in a studio in Berlin. Dissatisfied with the resulting music, they decamped to sunnier Spain with a copy of 'Paul's Boutique' by the Beastie Boys and started over. The result is 'Songs From Nowheresville,' 10 new songs spanning a wide variety of sounds and styles, out Feb. 28 on Columbia.

"It really helped us get rid of the pressure of your second album where you've almost boxed yourself in with the sound that you made on your first album, even though you made that sound quite naively," White tells Spinner.

Let's talk about the variety on this album.

We did it like a concept, really. Firstly, we wanted to find a reason to write our second album, because everything has completely changed in our lives from our first album, so we felt like we wanted to write something honest and authentic and not pressured. So, eventually, after a bit of a long road, we came up with the idea that we wanted to make an album that reflected the way we actually listen to music, which is almost like 10 songs that are completely different together on a playlist, which is what we do constantly now. We'll have something like AC/DC and the next song will be TLC and the next song will be something else which is completely random.

Jay Farrar's Woody Guthrie Album: I Knew Wilco Comparisons Were Inevitable

Eric R. Danton — 2012-03-09T16:00:00 00:00

Filed under: News, Exclusive, Q + A

Anna Webber

In between Son Volt albums, Jay Farrar likes to collaborate with bygone American icons: First Jack Kerouac, and now Woody Guthrie.

Farrar's latest project, 'New Multitudes,' involved setting previously unrecorded Guthrie lyrics to music with My Morning Jacket's Jim James (in his Yim Yames persona), Centro-matic's Will Johnson and Gob Iron partner Anders Parker -- just in time to help commemorate the 100th anniversary this year of Guthrie's birth.

"In a weird small way, we're kind of carrying on Woody's vision," Farrar tells Spinner, a few days before starting a short tour on the West Coast.

'New Multitudes,' out now on Rounder, actually started as two different expeditions through the sizable archive of Guthrie's unrecorded lyrics. Farrar and Parker had been chipping away at a group of songs when Guthrie's daughter, Nora, played some of their music for James, who got in touch with Farrar. They combined efforts, and brought in Johnson.

The album follows 2009's 'One Fast Move or I'm Gone,' when Farrar and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie fashioned lyrics from prose in Kerouac's 'Big Sur' for a documentary soundtrack album.

All of it filters back to Son Volt, the group Farrar founded after his first band, Uncle Tupelo, dissolved in 1994.

"From a creative standpoint, it's always good to step aside from the day-to-day routine and work in a different context, which is what these side projects like Gob Iron and working with Ben Gibbard and now working with Will, Anders and Jim, that's what it represents to me," says Farrar, who's finishing up a new Son Volt album that may come out this fall.

With so many Guthrie lyrics to choose from, where do you even start?

The pre-existing Woody Guthrie lyrics were in alphabetical order, so initially I thought, "I'll go in alphabetical order." After two days of only getting to the letter D, then I realized that I had to just start randomly picking a letter and going in and seeing what was there. That's pretty much the way it unraveled. I can't for certain say how much of them I got through, but it felt like there was a significant amount that I did not see.

Pink Floyd's 'Wall' Reissue: Nick Mason Looks Back at 'Fraught' Recording and Roger Waters 'Losing It'

Eric R. Danton — 2012-03-08T13:00:00 00:00

Filed under: News, Exclusive, New Releases, Q + A

Getty Images

Pink Floyd are responsible for some of the biggest albums of the 1970s, and none was bigger in scope than 'The Wall.'

A lacerating double-LP full of angst, alienation and a generous allotment of killer guitar solos, 'The Wall' has sold 23 million copies in the United States alone since its release late in 1979. Now the enduring concept album is the latest Pink Floyd release to get a lavish expansion, with new 'Experience' and 'Immersion' editions containing previously unreleased demos, video, live performances and other material.

"For people interested in the music and like the music, it brings a lot of extra depth to it," Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason tells Spinner.

Along with sharing his memories of making the album, and performing it in concert in the early '80s, Mason tells us that while fans are unlikely to see a full-scale Floyd reunion, principles Roger Waters and David Gilmour have reached a wary truce.

"It's like growing up, and it's very difficult to grow up in a music environment," Mason says.

What stands out most about the album after all these years?

I suppose its sophistication, in a way. There are so many ingredients that are contained in 'The Wall' that were not necessarily contained in other Pink Floyd records, particularly following on from 'Animals,' which was very spare and sparse. Production on it was much more massive, the complexity of the recording was much more intense.

School of Seven Bells' 'Ghostory': Band Is Stronger After Departure of Twin Sister

Eric R. Danton — 2012-02-28T17:00:00 00:00

Filed under: News, Video, Exclusive, New Releases, Q + A

Justin Hollar

Although School of Seven Bells lost one third of the band when Claudia Deheza left after 2010's 'Disconnect from Desire,' it barely slowed Benjamin Curtis and Alejandra Deheza (Claudia's identical twin, who goes by Alley) as they about-faced into 'Ghostory,' the group's latest, due Feb. 28 on Vagrant.

School of Seven Bells recorded the new album during breaks in a busy tour schedule, which loaded the songs with the band's considerable live energy. Between studio sessions, Curtis and Deheza cranked up the new tunes while on the road, which helped them shape the overall feel of the album -- a conceptual piece about ghosts, metaphorical and otherwise -- surrounding a girl named Lafaye.

Spinner caught up with co-leader Curtis to talk about how the band's future and the phantoms present on their recent album.

How did Claudia's departure affect the band?

It's a really interesting question, and there's no disrespect to Claudia at all, but as far as writing and sort of hatching our musical plans, it's really been Alley and I's thing since the beginning. The departure was crazy and unexpected, but it definitely galvanized us in the sense where we sort of had to rediscover why we started doing this together in the first place, and it's because we love our music and we love the way we write together, our collaboration. We had to look at it as a chance to go in any direction we wanted.

Tennis' 'Young and Old': Band Comes Out of Its Shell, With Help From Patrick Carney

Eric R. Danton — 2012-02-23T14:30:00 00:00

Filed under: News, Video, Exclusive, Spinner Interview, New Music, Q + A

Tennis-Music.com

Given that Tennis never really thought anyone would hear the songs on the duo's 2011 debut, 'Cape Dory,' writing a follow-up was rather more daunting for Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley.

For starters, what to write about?

"We actually struggled with the same question," Moore tells Spinner. "We had so much freedom about where to go next. We both felt really intimidated, I guess overwhelmed, about where to start."

Mike Doughty's 'Book of Drugs': 'Funny Stories' About Substance Abuse, Not a PSA

Eric R. Danton — 2012-01-31T15:00:00 00:00

Filed under: News, Exclusive, Q + A

Deborah Lopez

Mike Doughty isn't going to kid you: "I can't renounce drugs. I love drugs," he writes early in his new memoir, 'The Book of Drugs.' It's a frank chronicle of the early part of Doughty's career, from working as a doorman at the Knitting Factory in the early '90s to assembling, almost by accident, the musicians who became Soul Coughing to his deep and abiding dislike of the music they made together, all filtered through the lens of drugs. And a fair bit of sex. But mostly drugs, sometimes at the expense of sex.

Doughty's been clean now for years, and writing the memoir was more of an effort to collect "funny stories" than attempting to come to terms with his past -- which is not to say there's no introspection in 'The Book of Drugs.'

"I really tried to talk about all the bad s--- that I did or that I was involved with, just lapses of character and terrible moments that I totally engendered," Doughty tells Spinner. "So much of it is really salacious that I felt like, I've got to be hard on myself or I don't deserve to be writing this thing."

Doughty went on to tell us about sifting through his own (sometimes hazy) memories and how he feels, all these years later, about Soul Coughing.

Do you think the book glorifies drug use for all the impressionable children out there listening to singer-songwriters?

I don't know. From my own viewpoint, I didn't need to glorify it. They were glorious enough by themselves. I find the public-service stuff to talk people out of doing drugs very sad. People who want drugs will find drugs. There was an ad campaign in the subway, right before New Year's, there was a guy in a stretcher with a neck brace on and his face bloody, and it said, "This is not what he wanted to do three drinks ago." But if you drink like that, you are going to drink like that. It's very unlikely that the voice is going to intervene and go, 'Well, let's be nice to ourselves.' It's a compulsion.

Peggy Sue Argue Over Whether Their Songs Are Happy or Sad

Eric R. Danton — 2011-12-30T12:00:00 00:00

Filed under: News, Exclusive, New Music, Q + A

Anika Mottershaw

After an acoustic debut in 2010, English trio Peggy Sue plug in and turns up, a little, on its second record, 'Acrobats,' which is out now via Yep Roc.

John Parish, the guitarist and PJ Harvey collaborator, produced Peggy Sue's foray into the world of brooding, funereal electric folk-rock songs marked by unison vocals from guitarists Katy Klaw and Rosa Rex and anchored by drummer Olly Joyce. Parish also made the band a little nervous at first, until they got to know him.

"He was a calming influence on us, which you might not expect from someone who plays guitar like he does," Rex tells Spinner during a conversation that also touches on songwriting and the power of voices singing together.

What was it like working with John Parish?

Amazing. We were really daunted by it initially, because he's someone that we've had a longtime respect for, and both me and Katie have watched him play several times with PJ Harvey and also his solo stuff. It was a really exciting thing that he had heard us on the radio and heard of us and was happy to work with us. And then we got there, and he was really quite a normal, understated guy who was really great.

Was that not what you expected?

We had no idea. We went down and we met him in Bristol and we all kind of got on. We were trying to predict what car he might drive. He could have been a complete rock star, and it turned out he's quite a family man. How he was would definitely have shaped the recording process, and him being who he is, he kept it very calm.

St. Vincent Compares 'Strange Mercy' to Having a Child, Wanted to Be Kurt Cobain

Eric R. Danton — 2011-12-06T13:06:00 00:00

Filed under: News, New Music, Exclusive, Q + A

Tina Tyrell

It's not that St. Vincent has escaped notice until now, but a top-20 debut for 'Strange Mercy' and countless year-end-list praise are sure signs that singer and songwriter Annie Clark is reaching a wider audience.

'Strange Mercy' is the Texas native's third album as St. Vincent and, she tells Spinner, so much easier to make than her second, 2009's 'Actor.'

Clark tells us why 'Strange Mercy' is different, coins a good name for a Swedish metal band and muses on what third albums have in common with third children.

You approached 'Strange Mercy' differently than your previous records. What changed?

I wanted to make a transition from super-cerebral to more down to the core of it. I found in touring the 'Actor' record that my favorite parts of playing were getting to play guitar, which I've been doing for 17 years -- something I do well and like to do and have a voice with. So I thought, let's just take away all the accoutrement and get back to just playing guitar. I wrote songs on guitar, really simple songs on guitar, and they kind of morphed into the record.

Sons of Fathers Make the Most of Getting Sued by Beck Over Band Name

Eric R. Danton — 2011-11-11T17:00:00 00:00

Filed under: News, New Music, Exclusive

Christopher Durst

Paul Cauthen and Dave Whitbeck were in the studio recording when the e-mail popped up: A cease-and-desist letter from lawyers representing Beck Hansen, who was concerned that the Texas roots duo -- then known as Beck and Cauthen -- would somehow sow confusion in the hearts of 'Odelay' fans.

"It was shocking at first," bassist Whitbeck tells Spinner. "We literally had the red light on in the studio, Paul was running the session and I was recording something, and it just put a halt to everything."

Nobody wanted to make trouble, though, so Cauthen and Whitbeck promptly changed their name to Sons of Fathers, which was also the title of the duo's soon-to-be-released debut. Except that changing their name meant redoing the album artwork, altering the website and adjusting everything else Beck and Cauthen had already put its name on.