Nov 01, 2008
By Marcus Kagler
Year End 2008 - Best of 2008
“I feel dumb for being on the road promoting a record; I feel like I should be learning how to grow my own food,” says TV on the Radio’s vocalist/guitarist Kyp Malone, referring to the economic crisis in the United States. “The whole thing seems like a big card game played with a bunch of cheaters. The worst thing about it, from a human perspective, is the people who have been suffering from the injustices of the economic system are going to bear the brunt of the greedy pigs’ tomfoolery at the top. If there isn’t some complete change of value systems, there is going to be a lot of pain and suffering ahead.”
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Nov 01, 2008
By Matt Fink
Year End 2008 - Best of 2008
Imagine that you’re feeling a little overwhelmed. Imagine you and your band have made a first album that is arguably the most widely acclaimed release of the year. Imagine you’re Robin Pecknold, and you write the songs for Fleet Foxes.
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Oct 01, 2008
By J. Pace
Apse
“We understand why we get the post-rock thing, but we hate it,” says Robert Toher, guitarist/vocalist of Apse, speaking from his home on Cape Cod. Apse can’t seem to avoid the comparisons to Sigur Rós, Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, and their ilk.
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Sep 02, 2008
By Frank Valish
Vivian Girls
For Cassie, Katy, and Ali of Brooklyn’s Vivian Girls, being in a band began as a fun extension of a life filled with other pursuits. When the band started in March 2007, Cassie was studying illustration at Pratt Institute, Katy was finishing degrees in physics and education at Rutgers University, and Ali, also at Rutgers, was majoring in German. However, after three 7” singles and a limited-run pressing of the band’s debut album—which sold out within a week of its May release—things have been heating up. In fact, Cassie, Katy, and, Ali—who all prefer to be referred to only by their first names—were lucky to make it out of school at all.
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Sep 02, 2008
By Evan Rytlewski
The Week That Was
If you want to watch broadcast television in the United Kingdom, you must purchase an annual “television license” that costs well over 100 pounds. For Peter Brewis—who along with his brother, David, forms the core of Sunderland indie-rock band Field Music—having to pay the fee again after moving into a new apartment was all the excuse he needed to finally do what he’d long threatened: get rid of his television.
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Sep 02, 2008
By Marcus Kagler
The Verve
The fact that The Verve’s 1997 breakthrough mainstream hit was a song called “Bittersweet Symphony” is apt in almost every way. Not only did the track catapult the little-known and criminally ignored band from Wigan, England into superstardom, it also epitomized their future (or lack thereof) and proved to be a fitting epitaph for a band on the cusp of continually falling apart. Indeed, when “Bittersweet Symphony” became a hit, it already seemed that The Verve’s days were numbered.
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Sep 02, 2008
By J. Pace
Okkervil River
Okkervil River singer/guitarist Will Sheff is having more fun these days. Before 2005’s Black Sheep Boy charmed critics, he was seriously contemplating throwing in the towel. “Basically, I was broke,” he says from his home in Brooklyn. “I was totally broke, and I’d been broke for my entire adult life.”
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Sep 02, 2008
By Lorraine Carpenter
of Montreal
“Everybody involved is so emotionally invested in Of Montreal that it’s become like a cult,” says Kevin Barnes, Of Montreal’s master of ceremonies. He’s assessing not only the status of his band in the public eye—due to mount with the release of the band’s exceptional new album, Skeletal Lamping, to be promoted on tour with a “show to end all shows”—but the drive among its members and in the extended family that makes all their DIY dreams come true.
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Sep 02, 2008
By Marcus Kagler
Fall 2008 - Jenny Lewis
“Not everyone sees the genius in bluegrass,” says Mumford and Sons vocalist/guitarist Marcus Mumford. “Our banjo player, Winston, is the driving force behind the bluegrass leanings in Mumford and Sons. He taught himself how to play banjo while in high school. He’s really the bluegrass guy, but we all love it.”
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Sep 01, 2008
By Matt Fink
Fall 2008 - Jenny Lewis
“I still question it, because I feel like anyone can make great music,” replies Gregg Gillis when asked about his status as the current king of mash-up remixes, the leading face in the most faceless of musical movements. Only a few days after the online-only release of Feed the Animals, his much-anticipated followup to 2006’s breakthrough Night Ripper, Gillis is in a grateful mood. After all, just over two years ago, he was working a day job, thrilled to be performing for crowds of 30 in his native Pittsburgh.
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