April 6, 2009
Tomorrow night (4/7) at 11PM, we offer a new installment of our ongoing Tuesday series Sessions at Santa's with Spencer Sweeney. This one's curated by Thurston Moore, who'll hop on the stage with cellist Okkyung Lee and downtown legend/DNA drummer Ikue Mori for what should be an intense performance. Load-affiliated crews Fat Worm Of Error and Noise Nomads are each doing a set as well. The Sonic Youth vocalist/guitarist clearly doesn't need an introduction, but we thought what he planned to do tomorrow night might, so we dropped him a line and, while in conversation, snuck in a question about The Eternal, Sonic Youth's upcoming No Fun festival appearance, and their Twitter.
Continue reading Stereogum Q&A: Thurston Moore...
Posted at 6:09 PM by brandon in
Tags: Sonic Youth | Thurston Moore
latest by DSS
March 16, 2009
Tomorrow night (3/17) at 11PM, we offer the third installment of our ongoing Tuesday Sessions at Santa's with Spencer Sweeney. This time we're happy to present a night curated by Matt Sweeney (Chavez, Zwan, longtime Will Oldham collaborator, etc.). He's wisely chosen legendary Lungfish (etc.) frontman, tattoo artist (and straight-up artist), writer, and Baltimore favorite son Daniel Higgs with one-time Lungfish bassist and current Human Bell, Nathan Bell. Both men are set to do solo performances with accompaniment by special guests. You can check out the flyer at santospartyhouse.com.
Growing up, Lungfish was one of the most important bands in my musical cosmology: The Dischord crew that tapped into something incantatory with a questing, spiritual, and (most importantly) punk poetry via an awesome, raga-like minimalism that Higgs has followed into his excellent solo material, where he's shifted his focus to long-neck banjo, jew's harp, and fried/crusty atmospherics. If you're unfamiliar with the man, check out just about any Lungfish album, but especially Rainbows From Atoms, Talking Songs For Walking, Pass & Stow, and (maybe not considered as highly by most) Sound In Time. As far as the new solo works, I really love Ancestral Songs. (Also see Metempsychotic Melodies and the instrumental Magic Alphabet.) We figured we should expand upon all this Higgs excitement by asking him a few questions. Andrew W.K. is excited as well, so he also queried the great bearded one.
Continue reading Stereogum & Andrew W.K. Interview Daniel Higgs ...
Posted at 11:51 AM by brandon in
Tags: Andrew W.K. | Daniel Higgs | Lungfish
latest by Scott
June 26, 2007
Stereogum doesn't do traditional interviews, but when offered face time with Paul McCartney we ignored the staff handbook and sent Brandon into Manhattan armed with a page of questions and instructions not to embarrass us...
It's not often you get to share a couch with rock royalty. I reminded myself that when I was scheduling my day, so I showed up a few minutes early to NY Noise on June 14th, not wanting some subway logjam to make me lose my spot. Upon arrival I learned Sir Paul, who I was earlier told I could call "Paul," was running behind schedule, that I should maybe grab lunch.
When I returned to the studio 45 minutes later, I didn't want Paul to notice my coffee wasn't from Starbucks, so I decided to finish it outside. [Isn't that cute? -Ed] Within seconds he came ambling down the street. The stories you hear (or read about in the New Yorker) are true: Everyone recognizes him; folks stop awestruck in their tracks. The best interaction: Some woman with a dog shouts, "I love your music" and Paul replies, more or less, "I love your dog." When he got closer, he asked his companion to snap a photo (or press play on the Paul Cam recorder) in front of the studio. I was framed in the shot, so I took two steps to the right, deciding to let him slip past and introduce myself later.
Unable to finish the somehow endless cup of Joe, I went inside and spent some time in "the waiting room" listening to folks talk about how the album was doing on radio. There were two radio DJ's scheduled to interview Paul; I was surprised at how shocked I felt to realize radio still existed. After about 20 minutes I was called into the office.
Continue reading Stereogum Q&A: Paul McCartney...
Posted at 12:28 PM in
Tags: Paul McCartney | The Beatles
latest by Clefmoustic
March 14, 2007
In anticipation of the Meat Puppets' first performance with their new lineup (at tonight's Stereogum showcase in Austin), Stereogum contributor Brandon Stosuy spoke to the band's guitarist, vocalist, and songwriting guru Curt Kirkwood to figure out what folks ought to expect from the legendary group's new look.
Curt Kirkwood was in his backyard when we spoke. It sounded sunny. Now and again he asked his dog to be quiet, or went on a spirited tangent about Bruce Springsteen. Kirkwood's an affable guy, laughing repeatedly, slipping in nonsequiturs, poking fun at himself and others, etc.
Emboldened by his charm, I tried figuring out what to expect at tonight's Stereogum Puppet Show. Kirkwood insisted the band's always "winged it" without set lists and just tries to "have a blast." He did tell me, though, that it could include any number of songs from the Meat Puppets' back catalogue, tracks from their forthcoming album Rise To Your Knees, extended jams, some "gutbucket country crap," and, well, after more pushing on my part: "I just emailed [the new drummer] Ted and told him to commit to memory the entire first Coldplay album for your party." Score?
More likely, you'll hear something like the excellent new cut "Disappear," a psychedelic guitar-workout Kirkwood kindly passed along for inclusion with our discussion. The nimble, acid-tinged fret scorching makes a great soundtrack, especially to Kirkwood's mention of pooh-pooh mountains and ketchup stuffed balloons -- press play, repeat.
Continue reading Stereogum Q&A: Meat Puppets...
Posted at 10:22 AM in ,
Tags: Meat Puppets
latest by susan marie loehe
