Deerhunter's Bradford Cox Talks About His Lifelong Love of "Beautiful," "Christ-Like" David Bowie
Photo by Matt Lief Anderson
Late in the day yesterday, I spoke with Deerhunter and Atlas Sound’s Bradford Cox aboutthe death of David Bowie. Bowie has been an enormous influence on Cox’s life. He expounded on the legacy the man left him personally and to the world at large.
Tortoise On The Catastrophist & The Process Of Making Music Without Limitations
photo by Andew Painter
For those of us who came of age in the early ’90s, Tortoise — Chicago’s iconic post-rock granddaddies — were a kind of gateway drug for what could be ostensibly deemed “experimental” music. The band’s landmark 1996 release, Millions Now Living Will Never Die, provided, for me at least, essential first contact with what was essentially genre-less instrumental music — a discovery that would eventually lead me to seeking out things like Can, Neu!, and Sonny Sharrock. And even though Tortoise have always been generally slotted under the vague banner of “post-rock” their back catalog — now seven albums deep — is pretty singular. Jazz-inflected and imbued with elements of rock, dub, and ambient electronica, their music has, for the better part of 25 years, remained wonderfully inscrutable. The same is true of the band’s forthcoming full-length, The Catastrophist, which might actually be their most weirdly adventurous to date. The LP includes funk-appropriate basslines, feather-light interplaying guitars, and a variety of otherworldly synthed-out instrumentals. Perhaps weirdest of all, the album includes a cover of David Essex’s 1973 pop hit “Rock On,” which the band manages to make sound oddly ominous. Elsewhere, Yo La Tengo’s Georgia Hubley shows up to add vocals to “Yonder Blue,” which is perhaps one of the loveliest songs the band has ever recorded. In other hands, so many disparate elements and influences might sound like a crazy mess, but The Catastrophist has the same kind of measured, sanguine quality that has been the hallmark of almost every Tortoise album. None of this should make sense, but for some reason all of it does. I talked to Tortoise drummer John McEntire and guitarist Jeff Parker about The Catastrophist and how they got here. And before you get to that, you can listen to “Rock On.”
Actor Max Martini Thinks We Need More 'Authentic Men' in His Business
Photo by Michael Muller
In addition to having one of the greatest names ever, actor Max Martini happens to have one of the greatest faces—handsome, strong, and the kind that can easily disappear into almost any role. He’s made a name for himself playing tough guys, notably in Saving Private Ryan and Pacific Rim, and now he continues the streak with Michael Bay’s 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. In the movie, Martini portrays Mark “Oz” Geist, one of the security contractors who risked his life defending the diplomatic compound in Libya. “Most men fantasize about being heroic,” the actor says. “I know Hollywood paints me to be a badass, but Mark is the real deal. His bullets were real—mine aren’t.”
Tori Amos's Musical Memories
Photo courtesy of Amarpaul Kalirai.
It seems totally logical—if not actually inevitable—that Tori Amos would eventually write a musical. Over the last two decades, the singer and composer has created work that exists in its own rarefied universe. Her music is often character-driven, populated by winding narratives in which Amos herself serves as both muse and guide. It is these talents that Amos brings to her musical The Light Princess, which made its debut at London's National Theatre in 2013 to great acclaim. Based on the 19th-century fairy tale by George Macdonald, the musical tells the story of a prince and a princess, who each lost their mother at a young age. The young prince becomes so forlorn that he is unable to ever smile, while in another kingdom a young princess becomes so light with her own grief that she floats into the air. Balancing the whimsy of a floating heroine with heavier themes regarding grief and rebellion, The Light Princess feels both remarkably contemporary and incredibly prescient. Though it remains to be seen when a full-scale production of the musical will arrive stateside (Amos hints that plans are afoot), the original cast recording was released earlier last month—a beautifully-packaged disc that includes two songs from the musical performed by Amos herself.
Joanna Newsom On Moving Rocks, Annotating Lyrics, And Playing The Hits
Photo by Annabel Mehran
Given the nature of her work — the intricate arrangements; the complicated, often byzantine lyrics; the harp; that extraordinarily wild voice — it’s not surprising that Joanna Newsom has managed to engender such a devoted fan base. She is the very definition of a “singular” artist — someone whose work is totally unmistakable as belonging to anyone else. Over the course of three increasingly challenging full-length releases, Newsom has risen from the ranks of twee freak-folkster to something resembling a kind of rarefied rock stardom (or as close as one can come to such a thing in the world of indie rock). Her last record, 2010’s Have One On Me, was a three-disc behemoth of beautifully knotty songs about love and friendship and the occasional jackrabbit, which was somehow still less challenging than 2006’s Ys, her Van Dyke Parks-arranged extravaganza that boasted songs that regularly twirled past the 10-minute mark and pushed Newsom’s love of winding narratives to dizzying new levels. This being said, Newsom’s music, while always fascinating, is admittedly not for everyone. Her work should ostensibly be the kind of material destined only to guarantee lifetime status as a cult figure, but for whatever reasons — her uncanny charisma and profound talent among them — people have been willing to follow Joanna Newsom wherever she has seen fit to go. Her new album, Divers, should only deepen her fan base. The record is no less ornate than previous efforts, but with only 11 tracks, it’s a much more digestible affair. The production is predictably lush (including contributions from Nico Muhly and Dave Longstreth), and the songs still sprawl in a million fascinating directions, roaming across narratives involving everything from pearl divers and goose eggs to ancient tobacco settlements. However, there is a clarity of vision and a heightened melodicism at play on Divers that makes the record slightly easier to tackle than her last two releases, even though the repeated listens and slow process of unpacking is often what makes Joanna Newsome records so fascinating.
The Roundabout Road To Neon Indian's Decadent New Album
Photo by Pooneh Ghana
Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo lost what was originally supposed to become his third album. Actually, he didn’t lose it per se; it was stolen from him three years ago (vis a vis his laptop) after he drunkenly fell asleep on his own Brooklyn stoop while locked out of his apartment. It’s a story that, when I bring it up, Palomo seems already exhausted of telling, but he’s quick to point out that there’s actually a happy ending. “I don’t advocate passing out in public,” he says, “but I can see now that losing that stuff was, in the bigger picture, actually a good thing. I wouldn’t have ended up making this kind of record if I’d kept on going like I was. I needed a real break.”
Q&A: Super-Producer Glen Ballard On Jagged Little Pill, “Man In The Mirror,” & His Other Classic Recordings
Photo by Jeff Kravitz
Given that the wave of ’90s nostalgia seems to be cresting right about now, it’s only fitting that one of that decade’s most successful and culturally ubiquitous records — Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill — is now getting the proper reissue treatment. Released in 1995, when Alanis was still an unknown here in the States, the record currently ranks among the best-selling albums of all time, having sold more than 33 million copies. Not only did the record bless us with singles that, for better or worse, will forever be a part of popular consciousness — “You Oughta Know” “Ironic,” “You Learn,” “Hand In My Pocket” — it opened the floodgates for a slew of other female solo artists who would shape the latter half of that decade. Would we have had Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch” or Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want To Wait” without Alanis? Would Sarah McLachlan have ever gotten Lilith Fair off the ground in 1997 if Alanis hadn’t basically smashed the roof off pop culture just a couple years before? Listening to it now, it’s hard to believe that Jagged Little Pill is an album that almost wasn’t. Written when Morissette was still a teenager and rejected by almost every record label at the time, the album — which was written and produced with legendary producer and studio whiz Glen Ballard — is the kind of unlikely (ironic?) success story that becomes the stuff of legend.
Michael Kors: 7 Fall Essentials Every Man Needs to Buy
As New Yorkers contemplate the seasonal ritual of upending our closets and pulling out our best cool-weather looks, men in need of some fall staples need only look to one of the city’s finest arbiters of good taste, Michael Kors, for a little inspiration. The renowned New York designer’s fall menswear collection contains pretty much everything we’ve come to love from him — a classically restrained color palette (smoky grays, creamy camels, an arsenal of basic blacks), luxe flourishes (alpaca knits, cashmere, calf hair and soft leather) and an always erudite take on classic staples like peacoats, cardigans and an array of multi-functional bags.
Shirley Manson On Garbage’s 20th Anniversary Reissue And Tour
Photo by Joseph Cultice
This month marks the 20th anniversary of Garbage’s self-titled debut, the album responsible for such ’90s megahits as “Only Happy When It Rains” and “Stupid Girl.” It’s an important record for many reasons, not the least of which is that it helped bridge the gap between noisy alternative rock and mainstream pop — incorporating everything from burgeoning electronica to buzz-saw guitars and just the slightest whiffs of trip-hoppy industrial music. If you were of college-age back in 1995, Garbage was the kind of record that everyone seemed to have some sort of relationship with — from somber gay goth boys like myself blasting “Vow” at peak volume while smoking clove cigarettes in their dorm rooms to legions of newly converted Shirley Manson acolytes aggressively dyeing their hair red and stomping around campus in combat boots and mini-dresses. Garbage was a pop record, to be sure, but it was just genre-bending and weird enough that almost anyone could access it. And unless you didn’t have access to radio and MTV, there was no way to avoid it. The LP spent more than a year haunting the US and UK charts, and eventually sold more than 4 million copies worldwide. Looking back, it’s hard to imagine another ’90s band capable of making a top 20 single called “Queer” seem like the most natural thing in the world. It’s equally impossible to imagine the ’90s without Shirley Manson, who was exactly the kind of angry pop heroine the decade so desperately needed.
FIDLAR’s Zac Carper On Kicking Drugs, Staying Punk, And Sophomore Slumps
Photo by Alice Baxley
Next month, California pop-punks FIDLAR will release Too, the follow up to their much-loved self-titled 2013 debut. As evidenced by early singles “40 Oz. On Repeat” and “West Coast” and “Drone,” the new record doesn’t scrimp when it comes to giant hooks or appropriately buzzed-out guitars, but it does add an extra layer to finesse to the band’s reliably scrappy songs. And while the band hasn’t totally abandoned the bratty goofball charm that made the first album such a fun listen, they have taken — as frontman Zac Carper describes it — some “baby steps” toward growing up. For Carper, this meant not only getting back to his roots when it came to writing new songs, but also coming to terms with the substance-abuse issues that were threatening both his life and the future of the band. I spoke with him about the new record and how getting clean has affected both his life and his music, something clearly reflected in Too album tracks like “Sober” and “Leave Me Alone,” the latter of which we are premiering here.