The Black Crowes ended an extremely busy and successful 2008 with a bang in San Francisco last night. Chris and Rich Robinson’s band of brothers finished a five show stand
I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t be happier to put the last full work week of 2008 behind me. I’ve been burning the candles at both ends and
As I was trolling through YouTube looking for some tasty clips for our second Grateful Dead themed week, I stumbled across a rather interesting video of a young Joni Mitchell
It’s been a while since MMW’s home base of NYC has gotten some love, so we were very excited to find this piece of news on the band’s website… Medeski
The great Animal Collective leak saga continues with the news that the email from band member Brian “Geologist” Weitz was a hoax. Someone hacked Geologist’s email address and sent off
Jack Johnson and an assortment of musicians on his Brushfire Records roster pitched in to create a debut holiday album called This Warm December.
Hailing from UK-based shoegazing bands Mojave 3 and Slowdrive, singer/songwriter Neil Halstead recently branched off to focus on a solo album that he dropped this past July. Since signing onto Brushfire Records, Halstead has been racking up critical acclaim while touring extensively. For This Warm December, Halstead contributed an original, somber acoustic track entitled, The Man in the Santa Suit. Halstead shares his thoughts about the holidays and his memories of Christmastime in the UK…
Jack Spilberg: What do you want for Christmas?
Neil Halstead: Time with the family and friends
JS: What’s better, naughty or nice?
NH: I have to say naughty and nice is probably the very best.
JS: Which do you prefer, real or fake Christmas trees?
NH: Fake Christmas trees are less messy I suppose. When I was a kid we would have a little tree that my dad would dig up every year for Christmas, and then replant afterwards. That is probably the best solution. You’ve got to go big in the end though.
READ ON for more from Brushfire recording artist Neil Halstead…
Eagle Rock Entertainment’s Classic Albums series looks at the genius behind Pink Floyd’s game-changing release, Dark Side of the Moon. Friday [all times Eastern]: Live From Abbey Road: Suzanne Vega
Let’s check in with the irreverent mind behind Uncensored Interview’s blog, The Shark, for another installment of Uncensored Thursdays…
Never before in most of our lifetimes has the need to maintain employment been so dire. People are literally clinging onto their jobs for dear life, hoping the bloody recession axe slices just above their heads and takes out some other unfortunate douchebag.
I was walking by the unemployment office the other day when I noticed three hookers and a coke dealer waiting in line. You know things are bad when hookers are being laid off! Now who will suck the dicks of all of those greedy, coked-up Wall Street execs who piloted their companies into the ground? Certainly not their wives! It’s a sad, sad situation for America.
Last month I propositioned that being Indie means having a crappy job, but what is an indie kid to do when employment is unavailable at even the crappiest of crappy jobs? Even in a recession, bills still have to be paid, debt still has to be taken care of and new tight pants and newspaper-boy hats have to be purchased:
READ ON for the rest of this week’s Uncensored Thursdays…
If you ever wonder what sets apart the folks who successfully pave thier way through creative endeavors, Jesse Jarnow cut his teeth “beginning in 2nd grade, when he edited ‘2nd Grade News’ by writing it out longhand and Xeroxing it,” and worked on homemade ‘zines and school papers ever since.
His first published piece ran in John Dwork’s now defunct Grateful Dead fanzine, Dupree’s Diamond News, and his first regular gig began with the early days of jambands.com. Jesse Jarnow has now graced the pages (both pulp and processor) of Relix, Paste, the London Times, the Village Voice, the AP, Salon and many more. While it ain’t easy given his prolific output, you can try keep to up with his frenzied pace at the Frank and Earthy blog, his Frow Show radio program on WFMU or his Twitter feed. As longtime readers and fans, we’re excited to have Jesse at HT today to shed some light on the ins and outs on his life as a music scribe.
Ryan Dembinsky: More so than the vast majority of music critics out there, you seem to really strive to carefully construct your record reviews, no matter how long or short, often crafting elaborate sentences, including deep references and devising thoughtful comparisons. Could you walk us through the process of reviewing an album from start to finish?
Jesse Jarnow: Thanks! It’s a bit different each time, depending on how long before deadline I get a copy of what I’m reviewing. Ideally, it’s about a month. For albums I’m psyched about, I’ll first listen straight through on headphones. But, most new music I get goes into a thousand-or-so-song playlist that I run on shuffle most of the time. It’s a combination of everything I’ve gotten recently — music by new bands, random downloads, live stuff, outtakes, compilations, old stuff I’m just discovering… just, everything.
READ ON for more of our Writer’s Workshop with Jesse Jarnow…
Yesterday, after a couple of tracks from Animal Collective’s forthcoming album Merriweather Post Pavilion leaked, an email surfaced purportedly from Brian Weitz aka Geologist imploring their fans to assist in
