“Hey, that was the night you guys bet me $45 that I wouldn’t ask out our waitress at Denny’s.” It’s two weeks ago and I’m sitting in the Cat’s Cradle dressing room with my Superchunk bandmates–Jim Wilbur, Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance. We’re taking a little stroll down Memory Lane as we thumb through the […]
Jon Wurster
Posted inMusic
Floating away
It’s been a tough couple of years for Philadelphia-based rockers Marah. In 2000, the band followed their 1998 debut album, Let’s Cut The Crap and Hook Up Later on Tonight, with the critically acclaimed Kids In Philly (released on Steve Earle’s E-Squared label), an infectious mix of folk, country, R&B and rag-tag Replacements-esque rock that […]
Posted inNews
Bandway
Can rock ‘n’ roll and humor co-exist? One listen to The Kink’s “Lola” or Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” would certainly point to the affirmative. But what about artists whose entire oeuvre is funny? The leading lights of comedy-rock’s late ’80s heyday like Dread Zeppelin, King Missile or the Dead Milkmen have hardly stood the test […]
Posted inMusic
Blackest of the Black?
The voice on the other end of the phone doesn’t sound anything like evil personified. You expect Glenn Danzig, heavy rock’s darkest angel and possessor of one of the genre’s most powerful voices, to shatter the earpiece with his patented baritone roar. The truth is, the 47-year-old howler sounds downright weary as he sighs a […]
Posted inMusic
Mould-ulate
“I’m not worried,” says Bob Mould, laughing. “Broadway shows crash all the time.” Speaking to the Indy from an Athens, Ga. hotel, the 40-year-old alternative rock pioneer is not in the least bit concerned with what might possibly go wrong later that night–the opening show of his current Carnival of Light and Sound tour. Although […]
Posted inNews
Langley Schools Music Project
At first look, this collection of ’60s and ’70s pop songs sung by a 60-voice rural Canadian children’s choir is bound to illicit more than a few snickers. Careful listening, however, reveals Innocence and Despair to be one of the purest examples of “music for music’s sake” in recent memory. Originally released as two separate […]
Posted inMusic
Fear Not The Yayhoos
If you’re at all familiar with (here it comes) roots rock, you know the names quite well. Lead singer-guitarist Dan Baird was the voice behind ’80s hitmakers The Georgia Satellites, Eric “Roscoe” Ambel (guitars and vocals) was a founding member of New York’s Del Lords and bassist Keith Christopher has laid it down for the […]
Posted inGuides
Fall-ternative: Classic Rock
“Don’t fear the reaper, baby.” “From 1976 to 1981, we were about as big as you could get,” says Blue Oyster Cult guitarist-vocalist Eric Bloom. “I was very uptight back then; I wouldn’t even mow my grass because I was afraid somebody would go driving by.” Things are a little less tense for BOC in […]
Posted inArt
What’s My Line?
Michael Cheers is on a roll. At this moment he is Flash Gordon answering insane questions at a press conference. In a few minutes he’ll be pontificating about the lesser-known aspects of Sumerian culture. Later on, two fellow actors will improvise a scene based on 15 or so audience-offered topics. Somehow they manage to keep […]
Posted inMusic
See Band Run
It was just a matter of time before “reality television” merged with rock ‘n’ roll. VH1’s Bands On The Run features four unknown bands in a 13-week trek through the United States. The pot of gold at the end of this beer-soaked rainbow? A grand prize of $50,000, all new band equipment, a music video […]