Pages tagged “catching up with”

Kevin Barnes is responsible for the music of Of Montreal, but his brother, visual artist David Barnes is a major factor in the band's aesthetic concept. David has worked on everything from T-shirts and posters to the band’s mind-boggling stage show and trippy album art, including the groundbreaking packaging for Of Montreal’s latest release, Skeletal Lamping (pictured above). While working on our November cover story, Paste associate editor Steve LaBate sat down with David for some insight into his work and relationship with his brother.

The Watson Twins' break came with Rabbit Fur Coat, their 2006 collaboration with Jenny Lewis. From the album's cover, which featured the petite Lewis flanked on both sides by the willowy Watsons, to the rich harmonies the twins wrapped around the Rilo Kiley frontwoman's tunes, their presence was immediately felt among fans of indie-country. In June, Vanguard Records released the twins' debut album, Fire Songs, which offered two summer gems: the Goffin-and-King-esque original "How Am I To Be", and their laid-back cover of The Cure's "Just Like Heaven."  

Paste met up with The Watson Twins in Portland, Ore., several hours before their headlining show at The Doug Fir Lounge. The tour manager introduced me first to Leigh and her easygoing charm set the mood; Chandra appeared soon after wearing pinstriped flares, the only sign of fashion-consciousness among the two on this breezy summer evening. 

[Above: Noot d' Noot performs outside Criminal Records this year on Record Store Day.]

Growing up in Athens, Ga., I spent my entire life surrounded by musicians. A night out meant going to the bar around the corner to see whatever local act wasn't too drunk to get on the stage and play a little rock 'n' roll. When you're bred into music, you have a special place in your heart for hometown acts, and I loved local bands. Or anyone from Georgia, actually. But by the time high school rolled around, I had a definite favorite, and he'd just taken himself solo. His name was (and still is) Butch Walker.

Danny Boyle's time has come. While the renowned and talented British filmmaker has been churning out respected films for over a decade, he's teetered on the edge of notoriety in the minds of the public at large.

Carry the Weight is an apt title for Philadelphia-based folk singer Denison Witmer's latest record, in terms of both his recent professional and personal life. Professionally, Witmer has enjoyed a steady, incremental increase in his fan base over the years, especially after 2005's Are You a Dreamer?. That record—his first with indie label The Miltia Group—featured a guest spot from indie titan Sufjan Stevens, and garnered positive reviews with everyone from Pitchfork to Entertainment Weekly. After nearly 10 years in the business, Witmer found himself privvy to a burgeoning, expanded new fan base.

As one of the first bands to join the garage rock revival of the late nineties, French Kicks have made a name for themselves through their low-fi alternative pop and lush harmonizing vocals. With 2008's Swimming, the group softened their dynamic approach with subdued melodies and acoustic ballads before releasing a collection of homages on their digitally-released Covers EP. Vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Nick Stumpf recently chatted with Paste:Local NYC about the band's musical evolution, the current musician immigration into Brooklyn and growing past genre labels.

Since they first joined forces in 2001, Ratatat's Evan Mast and Mike Stroud have kept the music world on its toes in more ways than one. Not only does their innovative sound continue to defy categorization, but once our ears get a whiff of those catchy beats we can't help but start moving. The duo once again gave us an excuse to break out the middle school dance moves with July's LP3. Almost constantly on the road since the release of Classics in 2006, Ratatat is at it again. We caught up with Stroud on the tour bus as it was making its way to the band's stop in Pittsburgh.

One thing you will not learn from the following conversation that nonetheless deserves mentioning: even at 11:30 in the morning in a midtown Manhattan hotel room, Nick Cave still dresses like it’s 2 a.m. on a riverboat casino. (Dapper dark suit, several large necklaces and no less than three large rings, in case you’re curious.) Although he has been on the road supporting this year’s full-throttle rock record, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, multitasking apparently comes to him as easily as lushly nocturnal songwriting. In addition to touring, Cave is working on a both a new script and a new score for cinematic partner John Hillcoat, who previously directed 2006’s outback epic The Proposition from a script written by Cave. As if that weren’t enough, next year he will release his first novel since 1989’s Southern Gothic tale And the Ass Saw the Angel. When Paste caught up with him, Cave was cordial, discussing his upcoming projects, time-management techniques and when we can expect a new album from his side project, Grinderman.

Ray Raposa, frontman of the pioneering folk outfit Castanets, rarely stays in one place for too long, and his band's ever-changing lineup is reflected in music that never bows to genre conventions. City of Refuge, their latest offering (out Oct. 7 on Asthmatic Kitty) took a different tack with Ray sequestering himself in rural Nevada for a month to probe the southwestern aesthetic.

When Paste caught up with Raposa, he was waiting in Portland to kick off his early-fall European tour, and let us in on the recording process behind his new album, how his boat nearly sank in the Intercoastal Waterway and the state of freak folk today.

Fifteen years ago, writer/director Kevin Smith took the independent film world by surprise with Clerks, a slacker-style, low budget movie that has earned an intense cult following. With his newest film Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Smith is back with his sometimes-gross, sometimes-controversial and always-irreverent style of comedy that makes the fanboys smile and the straight-laced avoid at all cost. Talking with Paste recently, Smith covered it all, including his new comedy with “that dude” Seth Rogen, his plans on being more serious for his next film, plus kazoos, economics, movie protests and shit shots...

It's been a big year for It's Elephant's. The band released its first full-length, Little Trouble In Chinatown, in April (for free) and recording has already commenced on a follow-up. Somehow, between various local shows-- including performances at Atlantis, Corndogorama, Grant Park Summer Shade Festival and a session with HaveYouHeard.net-- the band had time to create a very special Halloween gift for their fans, which involved a trip to a Civil War cemetary that's reportedly oozing with paranormal activity.

Paste recently talked with the band-- vocalist Brent Jay, vocalist/percussionist Garrett Range, vocalist/keyboardist Matt Compton and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist David Fountain-- about touring, the benefits of free music and where the guys came up with that baffling name.

After its critically acclaimed sophomore album, A Weekend in the City, climbed to no. 2 on the British sales charts, Bloc Party’s knee-jerk reaction was to dive back into the studio as soon as possible to record a raw counterpoint to the band's previous atmospheric rock and jagged chord play. The result is Intimacy, a record Bloc Party digitally released only three days after announcing it online.

Paste caught up with drummer Matt Tong to discuss the group’s musical evolution, lead singer Kele Okereke’s political reputation and whether the music industry is a progressive and equal environment for a rock band with a black lead singer.

For the better part of the last decade, the Irish pop/rockers of Snow Patrol have dominated the airwaves, permeated nearly every form of media including films and TV, and sold millions of records. The band's colossal hits "Run" and especially "Chasing Cars" have afforded it the kind of success usually reserved for industry titans Coldplay and U2.

Director Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In has been the talk of the film-festival circuit for months—the “Swedish vampire movie” that has transfixed audiences with its keenly attenuated evocation of adolescent loneliness and budding first love in the apartment blocks of suburban Stockholm, framed around a latter-day reinvention of the vampire myth. Its two central characters, Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) and his counterpart Eli (Lina Leandersson), both played by remarkable young actors in their first movie, are a bullied and alienated 12-year-old boy and the mysterious dark-haired girl who only appears at night, and warns that she is not at all what she may seem.

When Copeland was gearing up for the release of its fourth album (which dropped this week), You Are My Sunshine, the band decided to tackle the publicity angle Dark Knight-style. Frontman Aaron Marsh spearheaded the effort to pirate fan traffic in August's viral campaign phenomenon.

[Above: Model Gerren Taylor as featured in America the Beautiful.]

Shot through the history of comedic cornerstones like The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live and Spinal Tap is comedian Harry Shearer. His newest project, Songs of the Bushmen, takes musical aim at the Bush Administration, lampooning Colin Powell (“Smooth Moves”), Paul Wolfowitz (“Wolf on the Run”) and Karl Rove (“Turd Blossom Special”) amongst others. The album’s cover even features a portrait of George W. Bush with a bone through his nose—offending Clear Channel enough to get banned from billboard advertisements.

From the outside, it might seem like Rachael Yamagata has developed a split personality since the release of her debut record. The smoky-voiced, raven-haired singer/songwriter's much-delayed sophomore release, Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart, is a 14 track double album (featuring a hidden song). The first disk is composed of atmospheric, elegiac and emotionally naked tales of lovelorn relationships. The second disk is louder and livelier, brimming with hot-boiled angst so much so the album has been slapped with a parental advisory sticker.

As ringmaster of 29-person pop-monster I’m From Barcelona, Emmanuel Lundgren usually has a lot on his plate. So it was almost no surprise—almost—that when Paste rang, the Swede was in the middle of cleaning up Malaysia.

Until this summer's Forth, The Verve hadn't released an album since 1997's critically acclaimed Urban Hymns, and many of the band members hadn't seen each other since that period of time. But now, over a decade later, the band is back to try and recapture the momentum of what was once considered one of the biggest forces in music, though they're now playing largely to audiences that were just discovering the radio when “Bitter Sweet Symphony” ruled the airwaves. Paste recently caught up with bassist Simon Jones to talk about The Verve's new music, the ever-present rumors and how the reunion came about. 

Whatever the subject matter, Lucinda Williams’ music has always dripped with the feel of the old, rural Deep South, but as I talk to her before the release of her 10th record, Little Honey (out Oct. 14), she’s at her home in Los Angeles, having just finished a conversation with online music portal iMeem about her 10 favorite protest songs. The times, they are a-changin'.

Jolie Holland has long existed in the shadows of other singer-songwriters. Maybe it all comes down to her voice: There’s a unique quality to it that can be initially off-putting to some, but once you’ve spent time with it, honed in on how she twists and turns her annunciations, what emerges is an artist who is expressive on many different levels. Her music is often times characterized as timeless, and her catalog largely possesses an aesthetic that defies any sort of “flavor of the month” notions. 

After spending a long time in the Bay area, Holland recently relocated to Brooklyn to complete her fourth record, The Living and the Dead, which dropped Oct. 7 on Anti- Records. Paste recently sat down with Holland in a small park along Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, sharing morning caffeine amongst children playing on swing sets and benches, to talk about her upcoming projects.

[Above: Artist Brian Manley at P is For Panda's launch party at the Highland Inn Ballroom July 25.]

On the strength of their full-length debut, Oracular Spectacular, the fellows of MGMT made a name for themselves as one of the buzziest acts to emerge from Brooklyn's indie rock hive this year. But that reputation may only be partly deserved: While co-founder and keys player Ben Goldwasser (above, left) won't deny his band's successes (they just wrapped up a tour opening for the one and only Beck, after all) he's quick to point out that their relationship to New York's hippest borough is tenuous, at best.

Goldwasser recently took a break from preparing for a night of psychedelic, candy-coated dance-rock goodness in Des Moines, Iowa, to chat with Paste:Local NYC via telephone about not actually being from Brooklyn, crazed European fans, Halloween costumes and more.

Momma's Man is the story of Mikey, a grown man from California who visits his parents in New York, who still live in the apartment where he grew up, and for some reason, seems reluctant to return home to his wife and child.

For such a small, unassuming film, Momma's Man boasts a strong pedigree. Writer-director Azazel Jacobs is the son of legendary experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs; the film was shot largely inside the amazing, compact New York apartment of Ken and his wife Flo; and the film shares producers with Half Nelson and Sugar, two films at the forefront of what's been called the "New American Realism" by the New York Times. [Half Nelson topped Paste's list of the best films of 2006, and both Sugar and Momma's Man were two of our favorite finds at this year's Sundance festival.]

Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci have formed one of Hollywood’s most successful partnerships, writing and/or producing films like Mission Impossible III, Transformers, The Legend of Zorro and the recently released Eagle Eye, which stars Shia LaBeouf. Paste caught up with Kurtzman about his new film, next year’s highly anticipated Star Trek, his childhood idol Steven Spielberg, success and sacred cows. Paste also spoke to Eagle Eye director D.J. Caruso, who has earned previous accolades from his work on Disturbia and The Salton Sea.

Winnipeg native Luke Doucet has been on the road long and often enough to admit that he's lost some of that "youthful wanderlust" he had some years back, when he was still touring as backing guitarist for Sarah McLachlan or playing with his proggy surf-rock trio Veal. But he and his White Falcon still have a thing or five to say. Among them is Blood's Too Rich, the aching, folk-rooted odyssey through looping soundscapes that Doucet mostly wrote while braving homesickness and a winter of warm weather in Nashville last year.

Boston band Apollo Sunshine first appeared on the radar in 2003, when it released promising debut Katonah. Two years later, in 2005, the band stepped it up with an impressive self-titled sophomore album that wound up at #13 on Paste’s Best Albums of the Year list. This summer, Apollo Sunshine released psychedelic opus Shall Noise Upon, and today the powerhouse live band kicks off its fall tour, with two solid months of shows scheduled for Europe and the U.S.

Ani DiFranco is happy and she's not afraid to sing about it. The media may have long ago labeled her a sad, depressing feminist poet, but that's not stopping her from writing what her label is calling her "most joyous record to date." Guess that's what happens when you fall in love and have a baby.

Paste caught up with DiFranco as she was kicking off her fall tour. Red Letter Year hit record store shelves Sept. 30.