Interviews
Jun 14, 2016
By Joshua M. Miller
Marlon Williams
Marlon Williams has a towering presence wherever he goes, in more than one way. The 24-year-old New Zealand-born singer/songwriter is a lofty six foot three inches, although he thinks his skinniness makes him appear even taller. More
Jun 09, 2016
By Laura Studarus
Charlie Hilton
If Charlie Hilton‘s solo debut album Palana brings to mind a certain iconic 1960s singer, know that you’re not the only one to notice the similarities. The Blouse frontwoman recognizes her untraditional vocal phrasing (“My vocal delivery style sometimes sounds a little funny!”), puts her in line for Nico comparisons. More
Jun 02, 2016
By Kyle Mullin
Big Thief
It should have been a joyous occasion, but Big Thief‘s SXSW debut was instead fraught with difficulty for frontwoman Adrianne Lenker. Not long before the Brooklyn-bred indie rock quartet’s first shows at that massive Austin festival this year, Lenker all but lost a crucial component of being a musician: her ability to hear. More
May 26, 2016
By Kyle Mullin
Living Hour
Gil Carroll didn’t set out to make one of 2016’s most buzzed-about dream pop records. Yet he and the other members of Living Hour seem to have done just that, despite the fact that he adamantly says, “When we started this band, I didn’t even know what the term ‘dream pop’ meant.” More
Mar 11, 2016
By Marty Hill
Sunflower Bean
You don’t have to wear floral shirts and flares to record your guitars backwards, just ask Sunflower Bean‘s Jacob Faber. His band owe more stylistically to the black-clad cool of The Velvet Underground than Woodstock ‘69, they make some of the most arresting psychedelic rock of recent times, but Sunflower Bean don’t have time for revivalism. More
Mar 08, 2016
By Kyle Mullin
SXSW 2016 Party
Pop music and the avant-garde don’t need to be mutually exclusive. Gwenno Saunders has boldly delved into both of those disparate extremes in the span of one LP. The sunny-voiced Welsh songstress garnered plenty of praise in 2006 when she and her bandmates in the British indie pop troop The Pipettes released their glossy, hook laden debut LP, We Are The Pipettes. More
Feb 26, 2016
By John Everhart
Salad Boys
New Zealand’s Salad Boys—helmed by singer/guitarist Joe Sampson and rounded out by drummer James Sullivan and bassist Ben Odering—are one of the more circumspect bands when it comes to being interviewed. They’re clearly passionate about music, but prefer to let the listener come to their own conclusions about the songs. More
Jan 22, 2016
By Dan Lucas
The Anchoress
“There are some stories that aren’t mine to tell.” Given that The Anchoress—the nom de plume of Wales’ Catherine Anne Davies—has chosen to call her debut album Confessions of a Romance Novelist, this might feel a bit of a cop-out. At least until you find out that the intense story behind the three-year making of the album begins with her career on the brink of being killed off and the death of a loved one, before spiralling into further trauma. More