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DAFT OXFORD PUNKS: A Q&A Session With Vampire Weekend
By Arye Dworken Ask Vampire Weekend vocalist Ezra Koenig what he wants to do with his newfound life as New York’s Next Big Thing and he’ll simply say, “Write catchy songs.” Nothing more, nothing less. So, what’s all the fuss about Koenig’s band among blogs, message boards and, soon, magazine covers? Why is this seemingly […]
THE S/T INTERVIEW: Dax Riggs
Photo/Text by J. Bennett Before we met Dax Riggs, we’re pretty sure we’d never heard anybody mention Obituary and the Fairport Convention in the same sentence–much less as reference points for their own music. For shorthand purposes, we’d been referring to Riggs’ solo debut, We Sing Of Only Blood Or Love (Fat Possum) as the […]
THE SELF-TITLED INTERVIEW: Destroyer
Words by Michael Tedder Perhaps the only thing more shocking than the quality of Dan Bejar’s melodically nimble songwriting is how many of his songs there are to be shocked by. Not only does his main project, Destroyer, dependably release an album every two years, but he also keeps himself busy with side projects including […]
RAY OF LIGHT: Bat For Lashes
Story by Rebecca Wiener Photos by Travis Huggett Everything about Natasha Khan, it seems, is a delicate balance of opposites. “My writing relies on equal parts civilization and wilderness,” says the 27-year-old musician as we sit in a slender triangle of green space at the center of a busy SoHo intersection in Manhattan. Casually gorgeous […]
THE S/T INTERVIEW: Dan the Automator and Mike Patton, AKA Crudo
By Andrew Parks Mike Patton‘s only been in New York City for four days, yet he’s already written and recorded an entire album with avant-jazz architect John Zorn and his former Mr. Bungle bandmate Trevor Dunn. “It’s a three-act rock opera with a mystical alchemy vibe,†says Patton of Six Litanies for Heliogabalus, which is […]
Q&A: Mathew Jonson of Cobblestone Jazz
Mathew Jonson is mostly known for his fresh, slightly-mental take on minimal techno (see such slamming singles as “Decompression” and “Return of the Zombie Bikers”) and the carefully-curated roster of Wagon Repair, a Vancouver-based label he helped launch in 2004. Jonson didn’t get his start hand-crafting beats, however; his music background actually begins with his […]
In the Garage, We Don’t Feel Safe
Various Artists The Rubble Collection: Volumes 1-10 (Fallout) Back in 1984, a guy named Phil Smee had a record label, a vision, and an idea. The label was called Bam Caruso, and the vision behind that label was to drag the flashing lights and saucer-eyed whimsy of Britain’s psychedelic pop scene of the late ‘60s […]
Boris @ The Knitting Factory, 3.4.08
Text/Photos by Andrew Parks The last time I saw Boris (in October at the Bowery Ballroom’s Billyburg doppelganger) I left before Japan’s finest underground extremists could finish. Looking back on it now, I’m not sure why. Maybe it was because the ever-lovely Dean & Britta had already lulled me into the first stages of sleep. […]
Q&A with Slayer | Interview by Andrew Parks
SLAUGHTERHOUSE FOUR [L to R: Dave Lombardo, Jeff Hanneman, Tom Araya, Kerry King] Here’s something we would have never guessed about Tom Araya: the Slayer vocalist/bassist, one of the most important extreme music icons ever, still gets nervous before shows despite the fact that his cantankerous crew of thrash-metal pioneers formed 25 years ago. “If […]
IM S/T: Sally Shapiro
Interview by Arye Dworken Sally Shapiro is so terrified of performing that her first brief tour of the U.S. (including a stop tonight at New York’s Mercury Lounge) is a DJ-only affair alongside her Italo-sculpting producer Johan Agebjörn. While this’ll be exciting to all the disco revivalists out there–the kind that equally worship Lindstrøm, Giorgio […]
Gang Gang Dance @ The Park Avenue Armory (Whitney Biennial), 3.9.08
Text/Photos by Aaron Richter It seemed like few knew what to expect in the minutes before Gang Gang Dance‘s performance at the Park Avenue Armory, in conjunction with the opening of the 2008 Whitney Biennial. Even more were confused as they were told that the room was at capacity and to please stop crowding the […]
Q&A with Cadence Weapon | Interview by Michael Tedder
KNIVES OUT Photos by Aaron Pederson Cadence Weapon approached his second album, Afterparty Babies (Anti-), with one of the purest goals an artist could have: the desire to meet Tina Fey. Of course, the rapper/producer also finds time to gripe about girls and dis ridiculous hipster fashion. But that’s besides the point, really. self-titled caught […]
THE S/T SCOOP: An Exclusive Isobel Campbell Interview About Mark Lanegan, Sunday at Devil Dirt
While the recent announcement of Sunday at Devil Dirt–the second full-length from the sweet and sour pairing of Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell–may seem like a surprise to most given Lanegan just released the Gutter Twins’ debut, we know better over here at self-titled. Why? Because Campbell told us the duo was almost done with […]
1MM: SxSW So Far (Lou Reed, Trail of Dead, N.E.R.D., Justice, and more!)
JUSTICE @ the Playboy Party Sorry we’ve been so quiet this week, but South By Southwest is proving to be as impenetrable and exhausting as ever this year. A full report will be coming early next week and complete photo galleries will be popping up intermittently from this point on, but for now, we give […]
THE S/T INTERVIEW: Yoni Wolf of Why?
[CW from top: Josiah Wolf, Doug McDiarmid, Yoni Wolf] [Photos by Jacob Hand] By Arye Dworken self-titled: Yoni, what’s shaking? Nothing much. Just got back from a jog. About to have some coffee and relax. Are you still out in California? Sure am. No plans to leave just yet. There’s been talk, some talk about […]
SxSW Spotlight: Pissed Jeans
The Artist: Philly’s finest sludge merchants. Their Latest Release: Hope For Men (Sub Pop, 2007) The Showcase: Sub Pop @ Bourbon Rocks, 3.14.08 Their Set in a Sentence: David Yow for a Y2K world as led by a guitarist that builds quite a fence of barbed wire chords despite looking like a teddy bear. And […]
SxSW Spotlight: Thurston Moore’s Lou Reed Tribute
The Artist: The underground’s greatest living guitar god. Their Latest Release: Trees Outside the Academy (Ecstatic Peace, 2007) The Showcase: Lou Reed Tribute @ The FADER Fort, 3.13.08 The Set in a Sentence: One of the only signs of life in a rather stale paean to one of rock’s reigning nihilists. And a Letter Grade: […]
A Place to Bury Strangers & Holy Fuck @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, 3.23.08
Text/Photos by Aaron Richter You know you’ve got something great going on when you can upstage a band as great as Holy Fuck. Brooklyn-based trio A Place To Bury Strangers did just that–on this final stop in the two bands’ recent tour together–by cranking their amps to an uncomfortably high volume, so loud we couldn’t […]
THE SELF-TITLED INTERVIEW: Efrim Menuck
Words by Aaron Richter Efrim Menuck will be heard. As the guitarist and vocalist of his group, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band (originally formed in 1999 as a side project to the legendary Godspeed You! Black Emperor), Menuck will release his fifth LP, 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons, which contains four […]
SOUNDTRACKS OF OUR LIVES: Németh
Story by Stefan Németh Photo by Gerald Zahn My personal approach to film music is it’s often better to have less sound than too much. Film scores can have their own life, but they always have to serve the story in the movie first. This means I prefer to keep the sound as minimal as […]