They’re not a symphony of east Atlantic imports. They’re not even British. No, for those still among the uninitiated, Manchester Orchestra is the barely legal, Hotlanta five-piece whose faith in both their convictions and compositions has paid off handsomely less than two years after they began playing together. Led by precocious 20-year-old frontman Andy Hull, […]
Tristan Staddon
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The Pen, the Prose
Cadence Weapon is Canadian Hiphop
Edmonton, Alberta. It’s Canada’s sixth largest city, but has 10 percent of New York’s population density. It’s given us Robert Goulet, Jill Hennessy, and, uh, Tommy Chong. It’s home to the Oilers and North America’s largest mall, a 1.2 billion (Canadian) dollar monstrosity with more than 20,000 parking spaces. (Frozen) Compton, it ain’t. But, nonetheless, […]
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Danse Musique
Justice for All (except Kanye)
It wasn’t Kanye West’s most (in)famous bit of public speaking. New Orleans wasn’t sinking and, well, most of America wasn’t even paying attention. But when West interrupted last November’s MTV Europe Music Awards to un-ironically proclaim that his clip for “Touch the Sky” should’ve won the fête’s Best Video Prize, plenty within the pop community […]
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More Human than Hiphop
P.O.S. Spits Fire and Means It
As one of few hiphop devotees on the annual Warped Tour punk caravan, P.O.S. inherently fights a constant uphill battle. There aren’t many screams or keyboards in his club tour set, and if there’s anything notable about his pants, it’s that they’re from the men’s department and they bag. Slightly. And yes, though he’s an […]
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Punks of All Stripes Unite
Gogol Bordello’s Gypsy Punk Power
Violin. Accordion. Stage dancers dressed in garish costumes and red buckets emblazoned with the word “fire” that double as makeshift footwear and percussion. Skinny, scintillating guitars and clever lyrics. Violin and accordion. Seriously. The greatest rock and roll show on the planet? It just might be. That’s the reputation of Gogol Bordello, the boisterous New […]
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Planet Epoxy
It’s Roxy Epoxy’s World. The Rest of Us Just Listen to It.
Sixty minutes isn’t enough time to feed most musicians’ egos. But if there’s one thing those who’ve witnessed, listened to, or engaged with Roxy Epoxy can tell you, it’s that the gal ain’t like most musicians. Charismatic and opinionated, Epoxy has been showing off new sides of herself, not to mention her record collection, on […]
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Go-Go Boys
The Great White (Stripe-Less) Hope
Apart from being Jack White’s last band before the White Stripes, the Go are best known for their throwback musical tendencies and near peerless vintage pop palette. Okay, maybe some folks still fuss over their high-drama feud with Sub Pop but, otherwise, it’s all about all things non-contemporary where the Go—vocalist Bobby Harlow, guitarists John […]
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Riding on Sunshine
Finally, A Dope-Free Bike Tour
Last summer, the playful vaudevillian folk duo the Ditty Bops—vocalist/guitarist Abby DeWald and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Amanda Barrett—attracted national attention by touring cross-country from Los Angeles to New York City. On bicycles. For three months and more than 4,500 miles, which is surely an impressive achievement by any standard. So with the band about to mobilize for […]
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Sore Pipes
Rufus Wainwright Lets His Songs Speak for Themselves
The son of folk music regals, Rufus Wainwright has endured high valleys of vices over the years, carving a career as one of today’s most thoughtful and intriguing singer/songwriters along the way. He’s one of the few in the genre’s contemporary stable capable of restoring genuine imagination and, indeed, dignity, to what’s too often become […]
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The Nightwatchman
The Revolution Will Apparently Not Be Amplified
Tom Morello has braved riot police in foreign countries, floored arenas full of alternately astute/slack-jawed onlookers in Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, and graduated (with honors) from Harvard’s political science program. Dude’s as unflappable as his whammy slams are recognizable. But even Morello isn’t entirely fearless. Indeed, after spending parts of the past several […]
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Help Needed
Global Community Seeks a Few Good Fall Out Men
By now you know their profiles. Vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump looks a little like the title character from Babe and has vocals that soar as high as that creature’s ambitions; perpetually over-caffeinated guitarist Joe Trohman spins like a record, bay-bee; bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz needs no further introduction; and drummer Andy Hurley is an anarchist. Their records […]
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So This Is the New Year
Gone, But Hardly Forgotten
Between December 2004 and spring of this year, ex-Bedhead project the New Year posted exactly one news update on their website. Turns out that uploading pressing band info isn’t the only thing the Kadane brothers, Matt and Bubba, are rusty at either. The band is getting reacquainted with touring after their multi-year hiatus from the […]