It’s not that Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos is a compelling frontman because he’s slyly good-looking. Or that his booming voice sounds devilishly seductive throughout his band’s three excellently danceable LPs. Or that his love of skinny ties and fitted jeans leave him impeccably dressed. Or that he’s incredibly well read, with a knack for discussing […]
At its core, there’s something inherently fanatic about tribute bands. A performer had been so inspirational that striking up a career playing anything but his or her music somehow cannot suffice. There’s an acknowledgment that tribute bands make, saying their own songwriting chops never will compare to the act to which they pay homage. Only […]
As an actor, Will Oldham has portrayed a vanishing demolition-derby driver, a post-graduate townie reluctant of adulthood, and a former Alaskan construction worker. But his most consistent persona has been as Bonnie “Prince” Billy, the pseudonym under which he has consistently released his warbling, folksy tales of Americana upbringings since 1998. Before assuming that role […]
As a member of The Jesus and Mary Chain, drummer Bobby Gillespie split time in the early ’80s between the legendary fuzzy psychedelic noise act and his own group Primal Scream. But when forced by fellow Chain links to choose between joining the group completely and his own side project, Gillespie opted to launch Primal […]
As one of the first breakout artists of the U.K. warehouse scene, Goldie (born Clifford Joseph Price) helped put a face to the emerging early ’90s jungle and drum & bass movements. Although his beats were undeniably innovative, it was his villainous love of gold — with corresponding gold teeth and hair — that vaulted […]
Five albums and a dozen years into a career seems a bit long to determine that an artist isn’t just having a laugh and cashing in on a pre-existing TV career while embarking on this music thing out of vanity. But with each Juana Molina release, questions about whether that is the case pop up […]
Chicago is cold in February. January technically might be more frigid, but not by much. It’s the time each year that the Windy City’s sticky summer feels a world away, and those refreshing breezes off Lake Michigan are memories lost in the salty snow sludge and bleak skies that seem to hang for months longer […]
Like the youngster whose artistic prowess might have gone unnoticed had it not been for the Crayola mural on the living room wall or the track star who first got discovered while outrunning a gym teacher to ditch class, sometimes a child’s youthful mistakes can turn into career-making happy accidents. Then there’s A-Trak (born Alain […]
Tom Waits isn’t for everybody. And if the iconic, scruffy Californian takes some time to get used to, what chance does an even scruffier Pennsylvania transplant have at endearing himself upon first listen? But it’s at a second (and then a third, fourth, and fifth) go-round that Matt Arborgast’s phlegm-throated warble finally begins to sound […]
There’s that gray area where black meets white, that taste where oil and vinegar blend, that divide where north becomes south, and that tiny pocket of music where grunge meets guitar pop. It’s in this little burst of mid-’90s music history that New York’s Figgs have thrived — even before there was such a thing […]