AltWeeklies Wire
The Melvins: An Appreciation of an Aged, Evolving Beastnew
Here we are, 22 years later, and the Melvins stand as one of the most influential American rock bands in history
INDY Week |
Grayson Currin |
08-18-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: punk, The Melvins
The Avett Brothers Rose From Obscurity to Balance on the Brink of Famenew
So many goals are behind them: selling out New York theaters, playing the Grand Ole Opry, wowing the biggest American rock festivals. But this new deal with Rick Rubin's American Recordings puts the band in a different league.
INDY Week |
Grayson Currin |
07-24-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Miami's Torche Recasts Metalnew
With Meanderthal, Torche joins the current crop of innovative heavy bands rising from the South, each of them taking historical reverence for divergent forms and funneling it into iconoclastic, brazen hard metallic shapes.
INDY Week |
Grayson Currin |
07-03-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
The Many Lives of Actor, Redneck and Congressman Ben Jonesnew
Jones has been a Southern cavalier of sorts all his life, whether being the poor Southern boy marching for racial justice in Chapel Hill or demanding that The Dukes of Hazzard reflect the South as it existed instead of as created by Hollywood writers and producers.
INDY Week |
Grayson Currin |
06-19-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Talking with an Older, Smarter Gonernew
Goner -- now three men between the ages of 35 and 40 -- took some inspiration from Iron Maiden and The Boss on how to keep making albums while taking care of the kids.
INDY Week |
Grayson Currin |
06-13-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Des Ark Create a Modern Folk Masterpiecenew
You can debate the use of the f-word, but the nine songs of this handmade, spraypaint-and-magic marker EP are irrefutable folk gems -- authentic, real, and so of a time and place that they often sound like 2008 companion pieces to Harry Smith's old-time anthologies.
The Danish Rock Council Helps Out Efterklang and Slaraffenlandnew
Through programs like the Danish Rock Council and Music Export Denmark, which back Danish bands' tours, the government wants to show the world Denmark has unique cultural exports worth importing.
INDY Week |
Grayson Currin |
05-22-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
The Bleeding Hearts: Big Rock, Mid-sized Citynew
When the Hearts first caught on, some folks thought they looked tough, but their agile riffs and juvenile obsessions weren't rough enough for great Raleigh rock.
INDY Week |
Grayson Currin |
05-15-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
The Strugglers Last Album?new
Whether The Latest Rights proves a terminus or simply the start of a slow cessation for The Strugglers -- a band that's always treated the trials of melancholy like a reason to continue -- it's a brilliant climax.
Cantwell, Gomez & Jordan Do What They Do Bestnew
Opener "Mama Says I'm Crazy" is one of the band's biggest feats yet, essentially cycling through its whole discography in five minutes.
Howard Fishman Plays 'The Basement Tapes'new
We treat our idols like assholes: Just as wax museums house life-sized recreations of heroes we may never meet, tribute bands give us that thrill of seeing a band master songs by an act that may never pass our way again.
Tags: Howard Fishman, concerts
Violet Vector is More Than its Lovely Loveliesnew
EP I proclaims one thing that suggests another: Violet Vector is more than its lovely lovelies or sartorial gentlepeople. The songs pass muster, and the performances -- an appropriate blend of simple melodies and Spector sound -- are admirable.
City Lights and 'Another Country'new
Tift Merritt gets a second chance on her third album.
INDY Week |
Grayson Currin |
03-20-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Another Country, Tift Merritt
Whiskeytown's 'Strangers Almanac' Gets Double-disc Reissue Treatmentnew
Talking with Ryan Adams, Caitlin Cary and Phil Wandscher.
INDY Week |
Grayson Currin |
03-13-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Strangers Almanac, Whiskeytown
Birds of Avalon Get Over Proving Themselvesnew
On Outer Upper Inner, feels relaxed but not content, confident but not overly so.
Tags: Birds of Avalon, Outer Upper Inner
