South By Southwest is a little like those Vegas travel commercials, except instead of gorgeous models filling every elevator, it’s a shirtless Justin Bieber with a police escort and two bodyguards twice his size.
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While everyone’s been waiting for local eclectic soul singer-songwriter Anya Kvitka to record a debut full length, she decided to switch gears and instead put out a four EPs, released each week this month, and one song at a time.
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The members of Las Kumbia Queers didn’t start off liking cumbia—punk was their first love. Maybe that’s why this all-female six-piece band from Argentina approaches cumbia as if it were punk rock. Their instrumentation is raw, the energy is intense and they’re totally irreverent, playing covers of Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Madonna…
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Jennifer Wadsworth on March 5, 2014
Growing up with five siblings in San Jose’s working-class east side gave Andrew Bigelow personal insight into Silicon Valley’s yawning gap between rich and poor. Especially once his parents scrimped enough to send him to Archbishop Mitty High, the expensive parochial academy known for its football team and schooling the offspring of…
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Richard Faulk on February 25, 2014
What do John Williams, John Cale, Flying Lotus, Dr. Dre, Hubert Laws, Billy Higgins, Hall and Oates, Lana Del Rey, Barry Manilow and Ray Charles have in common? They’re just a few of the acts that have called upon the talent of Miguel Atwood-Ferguson.
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Richard Faulk on February 24, 2014
For the record, I was pulling for them. For services rendered to indie music, for the bands they’ve inspired and for proving to me and countless others that rock still had life in it. The Pixies deserve to be rich and happy, left alone to play whenever and release whatever they want,…
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Despite releasing his autobiography last year, Morrissey is more of mystery than ever. After climbing to rock icon status after only five years with the Smiths, he’s risen and fallen in the pop-culture consciousness over and over, but to paraphrase one of his own songs: the more they ignore him, the closer…
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Richard Faulk on February 17, 2014
“I was at a record store in Boston, and I saw a person returning Come on Pilgrim,” says Joey Santiago, guitarist for legendary indie band the Pixies, recollecting their debut EP, on 4AD records. Back in 1986, the British label was known for its roster of ethereal gothic bands, and here was…
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Drugs, violence and just plain rock & roll madness were major themes covered in the 2004 rockumentary Dig! as viewers watched San Francisco psychedelic rock band the Brian Jonestown Massacre fall apart at the seams. Yet, it was their goofy, flamboyant and not-nearly-as-volatile tambourine player Joel Gion who became a favorite with…
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Cassette tapes have returned and they’re taking over the music industry. Well, maybe they’re not that popular, but within certain underground punk and indie circles, they have become a popular way once again for bands to release their music. One band that’s taken advantage of this format is Portland indie rock band…
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