Interviews

Burning Man is a project best known for an eight-day-long annual event that takes place in Black Rock City, a temporary city on the playa of the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. The event is an experiment in community, radical self-expression, and radical self-reliance.

Reports from the Dust Bowl that is Bonnaroo came fast and furious this weekend from our team down on site, and we posted as much as we could without actually, you know, being there.

The High Sierra Music Festival is marking its seventeenth year of existence by once again bringing a wide range of musical talent to multiple stages from July 5th through the 8th in beautiful Quincy California. As always, High Sierra looks to be an epic weekend of world class music, incredible artistic displays, and jubilant merrymaking for musicians and fan alike.

  It’ll take an excess of positive mojo to erase the debacle of a certain Vermont music festival, but that state’s second most famous rock foursome is itchin’ to try.

He was standing on the sidewalk beside his brother when I spotted him. They’d just returned from their nightly tour ritual: dinner and a visit to a comic book store. Johnston sucked on a cigarette, standing beside his brother, as fans flocked to him. Politely he shook hands and nodded hello, a bag of comic books protectively tucked under his arm. Dressed in grey – dark sweatpants and a light t-shirt, his bright white shoes and socks pulled up high – he couldn’t seem to get away from the hubbub fast enough as he hurried downstairs. I followed closely, thanking the musical gods for their kindness.

For its new studio album Roses & Clover, ALO decided to shake things up. For most bands, that might mean a lineup change, a new genre direction, or even a complete songwriting overhaul.   For ALO, it meant changing none of those internal workings, but instead focusing on the powers of the studio album–and surprise.

Perry Farrell is breaking ground again…this time from far above the Earth with his latest creation, Satellite Party.

While Leo’s fifth album with the Pharmacists is far from a concept album, the ideas conjured by the title are all over it. Sure, “Army Bound,” “Bomb.Repeat.Bomb.” and “C.I.A.” continue the band’s tradition of political tongue-lashings and revolutionary rabble-rousing, but the overwhelming feeling of the record is that of a deep breath, accompanied by a couple sips of a drink on some faraway Spanish beach.

His name is John Maclean. For the last couple decades, Maclean has been creating a craft slightly ahead of the cutting edge. Against all logic, he has remained rather below the radar for the better of two decades. While his artistic innovations haven’t exactly fallen on completely deaf ears, his future-searching style remains unheard of by many of those who should know.

Our resident Hidden Track blogger, Scott Bernstein, catches up with Page McConnell as his solo debut hits the record store shelves. McConnell started work on the album two years ago, and he’s now finally ready to head out on the road.  The two had a chance to talk about the album, his touring and recording bands, as well as his thoughts on leaving Phish behind.

Looking at Stephen Marley you can see the resemblance to his father, Bob Marley. Hearing his music just confirms the power of genetics. Five time Grammy winning producer, singer and songwriter and the second son of the reggae master, is now stepping to the forefront for the first time in his 27 year career. His debut album, Mind Control combines the raw roots reggae of his childhood in Kingston with the rock, R&B and hip-hop influences of his formative years.

Blogs, NPR, The New York Times have all been singing the praises of Philly’s Dr. Dog and now they have some hard evidence. We All Belong is one of the 2007’s strongest releases, combining tight arraignments with picturesque vocals and a lazy fall afternoon BBQ vibe; Dr. Dog has crafted a winner to go along with their energetic live show.

This January, ten years after their first effort, the brainy indie-pop group Of Montreal released Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? to critical acclaim and the biggest audience of their career. The album is intensely confessional and sometimes cringingly direct, dealing with front man Kevin Barnes’ split from his wife (they eventually got back together) and his isolation in Norway, where he lived while making part of the album.

The spirit of Aqualung lives in a complex songsmith whose moody music he equates with both the underwater world and celestial space. His name is Matt Hales – singer/songwriter, pianist and multi-instrumentalist. A mastermind at mesmerizing us – first with his 2005 debut album in the U.S., Strange & Beautiful and now with the eagerly awaited successor, Memory Man.

Listen to enough Bobby Bare Jr., and you start craving the stuff whenever you're in need of a little peace of mind. It's not that he makes music that's necessarily peaceful, just that he's arrived at a cross section of pie-eyed quirk, country musicianship, rocker dynamics and loveably dirty, unburnished romance that's particularly agreeable on any kind of day.

Following a series of extensive cross-country tours that have put them in front of big crowds at major festivals like Bonnaroo, Langerado and Wakarusa, Steel Train has been making "serious tracks.”

For Patty Griffin, praise hasn’t been the problem. The man who discovered her, John Curtis, after hearing her sing for the first time, remembered having “no doubt, no doubt at all.” Dave Matthews, who proudly supports Griffin on ATO Records, the label he founded, “can't think of a more beautiful singer and a better songwriter alive today.” Steve Earle suspects that Patty’s songs “make most people a little uncomfortable–like they've just walked in on a private moment in someone else's life and they know they should turn around and tiptoe away, but they can't. They make me jealous."

For moe., 2006 was a killer year. Sure, they played and ran their own festivals, including the annual moe.down and snoe.down, as well as the second sailing of the moe.cruise. And of course they took on their typically strong touring schedule, but all of that is normal for moe. No, it was a killer year because while it was full of accomplishments, it could have killed them in the process.

Richard Patrick, the man at the forefront of the rock band Filter for the past ten years has enlisted with bassist Robert DeLeo and guitarist Dean DeLeo –the brothers and musical architects behind Stone Temple Pilots. Add veteran drummer Ray Luzier, formerly of the David Lee Roth band and you have Army of Anyone. Together, the sum is even greater than its parts and the proof is in their self-titled debut album.

he members of Rose Hill Drive are young, but don’t let their age fool you. This power trio of throwback rock and roll has enough rock star experience to fill four trips to Europe, while opening for Van Halen, the Black Crowes, and Queens of the Stone Age. The trio will embark soon on their sophomore stint of opening for legendary rockers The Who, traipsing from the west coast to the East, after headlining their own tour in the UK and Amsterdam.