The Sea and Cake find peace in repetition.
Kevin Friedman
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At the End of the World
Firewater’s Global Journey
“Well, I ain’t gonna live in your world no more,” sings Firewater’s Tod A on the opening track of his latest album, The Golden Hour (Bloodshot Records). The “you” in the sentence refers to two people: the president, and A’s ex-wife. Several years ago, after George W. was elected for a second term and A’s […]
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Balkan Brass
Beirut Is the New Black
As Zach Condon’s band grows, so, it seems, does his vision. At the tender age of 22, under the moniker Beirut, Condon is touring on his second full-length, The Flying Club Cup. Continuing to use Balkan brass ensembles like Kocani Orkestar and Goran Bregovi as a primary influences, Condon also nods to French crooners like […]
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Old Sounds
Same Ol’ DeVotchKa
DeVotchKa are not a new band. They’re touring on their fourth full-length. They’ve had their music featured in prominent films such as Everything Is Illuminated and Little Miss Sunshine. They’ve played to sold-out crowds all over the world and opened for acts as varied as Dita Von Teese and Calexico. And yet their new album, […]
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Cauldron Classics
Carla Bozulich Shares the Scorn
I wouldn’t want to end up on Carla Bozulich’s bad side. Recording under the moniker “Evangelista” (also the title of her last album), Bozulich produces music in the same manner that one of Macbeth’s witches might conjure a spell or prophecy—from a bubbling cauldron of toad parts, human hair, and maybe some entrails. There is […]
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All Lit Up
Aloha Breaks Through
After 10 years, Aloha’s Tony Cavallario wanted to do something different. Not that there was much to complain about with the band’s releases up to that point, which carved out a comfortable if not terribly innovative niche in the post-rock realm. But Cavallario felt compelled to combine his longstanding love for experimental pop with a […]
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All Dolled Up
Life, Death, and the Dolls
The New York Dolls created a sound that didn’t exist before they made it. Sure they had some influence from the Stooges and MC5, but by flashing a lethal dose of stripped-down, dirty glam rock spat out by a cross-dressing bunch of misfits in 1971, they get the title of the Empire State’s first punk […]
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Oh Ornette!
The Legend of Ornette Coleman
Jazz music is struggling against irrelevance. The greatest innovators have been dying without new generations to replace them, leaving the genre’s torch of progress in the cold hands of traditionalists. While there a few mavericks like John Zorn and Marc Ribot keeping the genre from falling completely off the radar, in general, groundbreaking slowed to […]