Live From SXSW: Rich Aucoin
Watch Rich Aucoin's entire perform at the Sennheiser & Paste Present the Stages on Sixth. read more
Found in: Featured VideosKelly Hogan: I Like to Keep Myself in Pain
With Hogan, “Pain” worth the wait When Kelly Hogan’s last solo record was released, Ground Zero was still smoldering in Manhattan. More than a decade has slipped by since then, but in the meantime Hogan hasn’t suffered from lack of work. Moving from Atlanta to Chicago in the late ‘90s after formative stints with underground bands The Jody Grind and The Rock*A*Teens, she’s kept busy playing solo singer/songwriter gigs, fronting jazz bands and singing live and on records with Will Oldham, Jon Langford, Neko Case and many more. For a while there, it seemed legendary producer Steve Albini had... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsThe Temper Trap: The Temper Trap
In 2004, the Zach Braff film Garden State turned The Shins’ first record into a “life-changing” phenomenon. Since then, numerous film’s soundtracks have tried to recreate that rom-com/indie-pop pairing, but few have been able to pull it off with the same results. In many ways, the 500 Days of Summer soundtrack was one of the first to succeed with that formula by introducing the world to Australian indie rock band The Temper Trap. The band had moved from relative obscurity to worldwide popularity in a matter of a few months with their single “Sweet Disposition” drawing in fans from... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsAlejandro Escovedo: Big Station
With a brazen swagger drawn from Alejandro Escovedo’s punk roots, the 61-year-old songwriter/yowler declares, “I can take a punch, I can take a swing…” on Big Station’s opening “Man of the World”—suggesting his 12th studio release is an action record. Over a dozen songs, the Rank and File founder never disappoints. With strains of “Forever Young”-era Dylan and the acoustic side of Neil Young, “Bottom of the World” paints a sweeping portrait of the dissolute, while the low-riding urgency of artistic consumption “Headstrong Crazy Fool” is laced with one slithering guitar line, a tiny keyboard figure and an unwavering... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsBrandi Carlile
Bear Creek Studios is a turn-of-the-century wood-plank barn sitting on 10-acre horse farm outside Seattle. For Brandi Carlile and her band, it was the perfect place to hole up for a month and record Bear Creek. read more
Found in: Music, FeaturesNeil Young and Crazy Horse: Americana
Only Neil Young could take the campfire chestnut “Oh, Susannah” and turn it into something that demands The Frug. But Young opens Americana, his folk’n’protest album conjured with Crazy Horse, with a herky jerky take on the classic that suggests gogo boots, kohl eyes and girls in body paint in cages. Don’t let the “b-a-n-j-o on my knee” fool ya.... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsThe Rocketboys: Build Anyway
Rock ‘n’ roll has been inspired by crazier things than a Mother Teresa quote, to be sure, but the Rocketboys aren’t really about crazy. On their latest album, Build Anyway, the guys are about simplicity, about quiet build, subdued reflection, pulsing melody and the subtle surprise of a sing-a-long. Which makes the two famous sentences that inspired both Teresa’s devotees and the Austin indie rockers pretty perfect, if not exceptionally rockin’: “What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway.”... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsRhett Miller: The Dreamer
Rhett Miller’s solo career actually goes back farther than his nearly two decades as frontman for the Old 97’s. The songwriter’s 1989 debut Mythologies is a pubescent preamble to Stewart Ransom Miller’s future “serial lady killer” status immortalized in the 97’s classic “Barrier Reef.” It’s an unassuming, yet promising, record that has achieved more cult status than being seen as any sort of lost gem.... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsKiller Mike: R.A.P. Music
“A no concession policy remains in force,” thunders a familiar voice on “Reagan.” As the right wing in American politics continues to sputter into helpless self-delusion, as they try frantically to airbrush the 40th president’s image, one Atlanta firebrand and avowed 99 percenter is steaming: Killer Mike. New album R.A.P. Music finds Mike on the offensive, taking an axe to the banks, the beltway and the history books. Like Occupy Wall Street, the movement that spawned more than a few signs reading some variation of “Ronald Reagan sucks balls,” R.A.P. Music is a synthesis of the confusion and rancid despair... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsThe Mynabirds: Generals
Is it bad to fall in love with your subject? What about critical detachment, objectivity and all that? Regardless, Laura Burhenn slays any journalistic ethos. The multi-instrumentalist behind The Mynabirds—all emerald eyes, sonorous voice and staggering earnestness—is enough to make you melt—which is perhaps why, on her second solo album, she goes at length to make you freeze. For those familiar with Burhenn’s Southern soul-soaked debut album What We Lost in the Fire We Gained in the Flood, Generals may come somewhat as a surprise: the sepia tone has been exchanged for a blue filter. Instead of redemption, these tracks... read more
Found in: Music, Reviews
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