The Mercury‘s “Horns Up” Music Issue 2008
Ezra Ace Caraeff
Ezra Ace Caraeff is the former Music Editor for the Mercury, and spent nearly a third of his life working at the paper. More importantly, he is the owner of Olive, the Mercury’s unofficial office dog. His writing has appeared in The Fader, The Stranger, The Onion's A.V. Club, ESPN's TrueHoop network, and countless fanzines that are thankfully long out of print. He makes a mean tofu scramble and yes, Ace is really his middle name.
Posted inMusic
Alone Again, Naturally
Bon Iver Chops Wood, Shoots Deer, Makes Record
In the winter of 2006 and early 2007, Justin Vernon disappeared to the rural woods of Northwestern Wisconsin to live in his family’s hunting cabin. A struggling musician who did time in a few bands you have never heard (DeYarmond Edison and Ticonderoga), and toured with one that you might have actually heard of (the […]
Posted inMusic
Once More With Feeling
March into Darkness
Few people in this city have a relationship with music that can rival Nathan Carson’s. While he might wear many hats—booking agent, promoter, one-time Mercury freelancer, outspoken all-ages show supporter, and musician—his main role is that of a staunch and militantly devoted fan of music, primarily anything under the umbrella of metal. His latest undertaking […]
Posted inMusic
Once More With Feeling
Immortal Technique
There is political hiphop, and then there is Immortal Technique. Born Felipe Coronel in a South American military hospital, Immortal Technique has been waging war via a mic since the late ’90s. Never one to mince words (“Fuck your chain/My people’ll kill you for water”), or images (the cover of 2003’s Revolutionary Vol. 2 is […]
Posted inMusic
Get Free, Die Trying
Defining the Indefinable Saul Williams
Saul Williams is neither a rock ‘n’ roll singer nor an emcee. Instead, the Brooklyn artist is one of a few performers who exist on both planes—part poet, part musician, all superstar. He’s an outspoken musical enigma who blazes new trails, even if he has to scorch the very earth he walks upon in the […]
Posted inMusic
Straight Ahead
Adversity, Triumph, and the Helio Sequence
It’s the classic tale told in seemingly endless biographies, rock ‘n’ roll screenplays, and just about every episode of Behind the Music: Musician is confronted by adversity, overcomes said adversity, makes their finest recording, and finally tastes the sweet and glorious world of fame as the credits roll. For the Helio Sequence, adversity sprang from […]
Posted inMusic
Once More With Feeling
Brother Ali
If given the forum, and a bountiful word count that knows no end, I can write and write about Brother Ali until my keyboard breaks, or my hands snap off at the wrist, whatever comes first. Every since hearing a bootleg of his early demos, I’ve been enthralled by the enigmatic Minneapolis emcee, and member […]
Posted inMusic
Once More With Feeling
New music from Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
There are numerous highlights to Real Emotional Trash, the new album from Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, but for the sake of a snappy opening sentence to this column, I’d wager the most striking one is that the album will not make you long for a Pavement reunion. In fact, the mere idea of the […]
Posted inMusic
Two Princes
The Original Sin of the Gutter Twins
It’s dirty. The idea of combining the heavily tattooed, sullen skulk of Mark Lanegan—he of ex-Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age fame—alongside the glutinous howl of Greg Dulli—he of Afghan Whigs and Twilight Singers fame—is just plain wrong. But, thankfully, there is no law against bringing together these two mammoth forces of sinfulness […]
Posted inMusic
Once More With Feeling
Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars
Some musical acts are known for their glorious and triumphant rise to stardom, in which they overcome diversity and ascend to the top. Meanwhile, acts like Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars had a far more difficult climb. Fleeing the soil of a country ravaged by political unrest, blood diamonds, and a brutal civil war that […]
Posted inMusic
The Writer on the Road
The Pen, the Piano, and Nick Jaina
“I’ve always tried to find the truth in this world, and, to me, that meant subjecting myself to unappealing situations or things I am afraid of. That is how you learn interesting things.” And with that, a young Nick Jaina set out in the world. As a singer/songwriter—a genre whose very term evokes images of […]
Posted inMusic
Once More With Feeling
Drive-by Truckers
While they still might have a reluctant pride for the Stars and Bars, at their very core the Drive-By Truckers are one of rock music’s finest acts, both above and below the Mason-Dixon line. Their turbulent relationship with the South—as a location, a bloodline, a way of life—falls somewhere between the poetic grace of Faulkner […]