Bet your bottom dollar on this: No one has ever accused Thad Cockrell of reticence. Caitlin Cary remembers meeting Thad for the first time at Humble Pie, back in 2000, when he was just a fledging songwriter without a band or an album. “Thad’s just totally brave about getting to know people, and he gave […]
Grayson Haver Currin
Bio: Grayson Haver Currin was the music editor of INDY Week and the co-director of Hopscotch Music Festival.Twitter: http://twitter.com/currincy
Posted inMusic
Bringing it home
“So this is what has become of rock ‘;n’ roll? A smashed guitar behind a glass case displayed on some rich guy’s wall?”; Penélope Cruz asks of a busted Pete Townshend axe in Vanilla Sky. Last week, Cruz’s question popped up a few times for me. Wednesday night, as Raleigh expatriate and former Whiskeytown frontman […]
Posted inNews
in singing under the stars
“For the alcoholic and addict who still suffers” reads the dedication to Aimee Mann‘s The Forgotten Arm, an intricate quasi-concept record about the degenerate but constantly hopeful relationship between John and Alice. At times, the concept is more effective in the illustrated liner notes than on record, but–as always with Mann–you leave each sitting humming […]
Posted inNews
Still modest
Imagine it: You’ve been plying your trade for 12 years through all kinds of difficulties, including–but certainly not limited to–one bandmate nearly exiting the psychosomatic deep end, another moving across the country after being accused of rape by a Javert of alt.weekly journalism, and the trials of making old tricks better with new partners. You’re […]
Posted inNews
In shared stages
Bob Dylan has been shooting holes through the hearts of those irksome “The Next Bob Dylan” lists since the release of 1997’s Time Out of Mind, a smoked-out, Daniel Lanois affair of forsaken love and a wandering man’s blues told by a poet not reviving a legacy, but reinventing it. Since then, he followed suit […]
Posted inNews
in music tutorials
A leader of the Chicago art music scene that includes heavyweights John McEntire, Jim O’ Rourke and the Thrill Jockey extended family, Sam Prekop is perhaps best known for leading The Sea and Cake. Who’s Your New Professor, his first solo outing in five years, is a happy, quiet, diversion, showcasing a knack for pop […]
Posted inMusic
The record you may never hear
Patty Duke Syndrome is perhaps the most written-about trio whose only official output amounts to one side of a 7″. But there is more. In a 2003 Spin exposé dubbed “Who the Fuck is Ryan Adams?” James Barber, Geffen Records A&R guy-turned-record producer, said: “In every interview you read with Ryan, he talks about growing […]
Posted inNews
in returns, part two
Ryan Adams is playing in Raleigh: A sentence that once was a mainstay of local music listings has been altogether absent for several years now. But on the heels of a Letterman appearance, his consistently best press in years, and the release of Cold Roses–his finest solo album since 2001’s tender debut Heartbreaker–Adams returns to […]
Posted inMusic
Ryan Adams’ elusive roots
“Is No Depression still around?” Kurt Underhill asks, devoid of sarcasm or irony. It’s an indication of what Underhill–the founder of Mood Food Records, the mid-’90s label he began just to sign Whiskeytown–means when he says, “That’s just a chapter I’ve closed in my life, and I don’t really try to reopen it.” Underhill, criticized […]
Posted inGuides
Welcome to shed season
Mainstream or just outside it, there’s more music outdoors this year than ever before. With three major outdoor venues plus a handful of one-off concerts, downtown streetfairs and music at a variety of porches, patios and plazas, the summer streets should be ringing with the sound of you know what. Here’s a sample of what’s […]
