The first article I wrote for 944, on a DIY booking service called Zebratour, ended up never making it to print. There was ultimately some kind of miscommunication between the guy who founded the company, and the magazine about how close the Zebratour site was to launching at the time of the interview and subsequent writing of this article. (No kill fee, by the way.) I’ve finally given up on this ever seeing publication, but this is what it looked like, pre-edit:
Archive for the 'music' Category
ZEBRAtour: Cancelled
June 11, 2008Klaxons
October 9, 2007[Originally appeared in YRB, Winter 2008]
As the three members of Klaxons playfully mug for a photo shoot in Los Angeles’ El Rey Theater, I’m talking to a publicist about the band’s instant success this year. In addition to a debut album, Myths of the Near Future, that hit #2 in the UK pop charts, the band just come off a high-profile appearance at this year’s Glastonbury Festival in late June. The general consensus among management and band alike seems to be one of sheer delight, which the band’s playful antics in front of the photographer seem to confirm. “They kind of bring to mind the Beatles,” the publicist tells me, as I stifle a laugh. The statement seems ridiculous because I’m thinking of the hysteria of Shea Stadium, but she is more modestly referring to the youthful hi-jinks of A Hard Days Night. Then again, with September dates in support of Bjork and serious talk of the band working with RZA, Dre and Kanye West, anything seems possible.
Arctic Monkeys
March 1, 2006[Originally appeared in Tidbit, March 2006]
There’s been something hysterical going on in pop music in England. A rock band made up of four kids barely out of their teens released an album in late January and it sold well over 100,000 units the first day of its release, vying for the title of being the biggest debut in UK chart history. The band is called Arctic Monkeys and the album, released in America a full month later on February 21, is called Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. It’s the greatest thing to happen to rock and roll since Oasis. Sound familiar?
Will.I.Am
February 1, 2006[Originally appeared in UNleashed, February 2006]
For more than ten years, Black Eyed Peas has been making its own brand of pop music, a smooth blend of R&B weaved into conscious HipHop. Will.I.Am, a central architect of the group’s sound and look, has utilized his varied background as a dancer, songwriter, producer, and MC in the creation of this chart-topping sound. A shrewd entrepreneur, he’s the first to note that popular success evaded the band for years prior to 2003’s multi-platinum Elephunk. “At one point in time, the Black Eyed Peas weren’t getting any attention,” he states. Something, he realized, had to be done.
Sinead O’Connor, Throw Down Your Arms
October 4, 2005[Originally appeared in ArtistDirect.com, October 2005]
Like a lot of British pop music fans, Sinead O’Connor claims to have discovered reggae in London in the ’80s. Despite the weirdness that has often punctuated the artist’s work, it’s still a bit of a shock that she has actually gone through with an album of reggae covers — not to mention that she has reportedly converted to the Rastafarian faith.
Recorded at the legendary Tuff Gong Studio in Kingston and produced by internationally renowned producers and musicians Sly and Robbie (who also played drums and bass, respectively, on the album), Throw Down Your Arms has been described by O’Connor as her “way of expressing gratitude to the Rasta people.” She event insists that she “would not be alive today if it was not for the teachings of Rastafari.”
2005 US Air Guitar Championship
July 14, 2005[Originally appeared in PopMatters, July 2005]
When I showed up to find the will-call line outweighing the ticket line eight to one I should have noticed that something was up, but the scenario was really too “Hollywood” to seem conspicuous. When I arrived at the window and inquired about the press list 20 minutes later I was told to “go to the other side”.
“The other side of what,” I asked.
The direction was repeated.
“The other side of the building,” I continued.
I got a nod.
On the “other side” I found a guy that I recognized as the same one who had initially told me to get in the will-call line for my press pass. He was now selling tickets out of his pocket. While he may not have been a bouncer, he had earlier been conducting traffic in club’s doorway, wearing a jacket that said “STAFF.”
Oneida, Black Mountain at Spaceland, LA
April 1, 2005[Originally appeared in PopMatters, April 2005]
My father is going through a divorce with his second wife, and I’m finding him a bit needy. We’ve been hanging a lot more than usual. Several hours before the show, he calls me to see what I’m doing. I tell him I’m going to see this band from Brooklyn called Oneida and he mock pleads, “Please take me with you.” I get the feeling it’s a joke, unless I really do feel like inviting him, in which case he might take me up on it.
David Byrne
October 1, 2004[Originally appeared in metro.pop, Winter 2004]
By now, it’s easy to forget that David Byrne was ever associated with Talking Heads, a group that was internationally significant twenty years ago and for which Byrne was the primary songwriter and creative voice. Having been engaged in a variety of projects over the last two decades — from film scores to ambient collections with the likes of Brian Eno to his involvement with his free-form, “world”-leaning Luaka Bop label — Byrne doesn’t recognize many of the boundaries as a composer and musician that many of his contemporaries face. Even as a member of Talking Heads — a somewhat ordinary pop project by the overall standards of his body of work — Byrne was exploring the kinds of non-Western musical forms that would regularly appear in his later work.
Air
June 1, 2004[Originally appeared in Clear, Summer 2004]
“The record is very true. It’s something that we really feel and something that we really experienced,” JB Dunckel tells me with an air of satisfaction. I’m speaking with him on the eve of this year’s Coachella Festival, where his band Air is scheduled to perform. It’s also several weeks after the arrival of the band’s latest album, “TalkieWalkie.”
Dunckel — who, along with Nicolas Godin, comprise the French duo Air — is feeling comfortable. “Talkie Walkie” is the band’s first proper LP since 2001’s critically unappreciated “10,000Hz Legend,” which followed the almost universal success of the duo’s debut, “Moon Safari.” After experiencing the highs and lows of critical popularity, Air has evolved into a more mature incarnation of its former self, fulfilled by its craft. “This last album is more special,”Dunckel continues.
Scanner, Sound for Spaces
October 2, 2003
There’s a nagging tendency to over-intellectualize the music of Scanner. This inclination is less related than you might think to the compelling tendency to over-intellectualize ambient music in general. Ambient music is often bolstered by heady description merely because there is literally so much space within the music, and so little going on, that it effortlessly incorporates the assault of validating rhetoric. One might say that the space in ambient is filled by theories of the music’s value. Scanner, on the other hand, creates art – a subject matter that, nonetheless, is in constant need of elucidating explanation.
