Music Features

For better or worse, the garage-rock act The Willowz has been lumped in with the California psychedelic scene. “I think it’s heavily related to the way we look,” said vocalist and guitarist Richie James Follin. “We do occasionally do drugs, but we’re trying to make music we like to listen to and that’s not boring […]

Indie-folk act Cheyenne had recorded some tracks in New York that the members weren’t satisfied with, so front man Jennings came back to Norman to fill out the rest of the album. Here, he tapped the talents of musician friends, including former bandmate Ryan Lindsey, and to record at Chad Copeland’s Black Watch Studios. “It’s […]

The Charlie Christian International Jazz Festival has been around for 22 years, honoring former and current jazz artists. “We have every reason to have the festival in this area. It is where it should be because this is where our roots are,” said Anita Arnold, executive director for Black Liberated Arts Center Inc., producer of […]

“We are Melt-Banana from Tokyo, Japan!” Now imagine that phrase being yelled at you by a tiny Japanese woman fronting one of the heaviest, loudest and most pugnacious rock bands you’ve ever seen. That’s the way every Melt-Banana show starts. “I think it is a normal way to introduce ourselves as a band, isn’t it?” asked […]

Despite more and more music being purchased online, independent Norman record store Guestroom Records has done well. So well, in fact, that co-owners Justin Sowers and Travis Searle are opening a second, bigger store in Northwest Oklahoma City. What makes their business work, Searle said, is that their business model never hinged on selling $20 […]

For the past six years, Chickasha native Travis Linville (my space page) has played at The Deli in Norman every Monday night, strumming guitar-rich ballads, full of iconic Oklahoma imagery and whining steel guitar riffs. “I think The Deli is a really cool place that has something special going on,” Linville said. Linville moved from […]

With its band members furiously jumping from instrument to instrument, Man Man live is a nonstop roller coaster of heartache, beauty, energy and ear-pounding ruckus that, oddly enough, feels like it was gently orchestrated. What makes all of this even more overwhelming and enthralling is the fact that there are no stops between songs. “We definitely […]

Blaine Cartwright, lead singer and guitarist for Nashville Pussy, said, “I consider us a pretty juvenile band. Mature means better to some people; to me, it’s just like maybe you’re starting to be boring.” Atlanta’s Nashville Pussy is far from boring. If anything, the band goes out on a limb to produce interesting testaments to […]

Many Oklahoma music fans have grown used to the state being passed over by big-label rockers. Luckily for fans of garage rockers Hot Hot Heat front man Steve Bays can relate. “We grew up on a little island. It was a good population, but it was hard to get to and expensive for bands to […]

Moviegoers checking out “Spider-Man 3” might hear something strangely familiar. Or familiarly strange. Oklahoma’s The Flaming Lips have contributed an original song, “The Supreme Being Teaches Spider-Man How to Be in Love,” to the sound track. The song is spacey, fun and quirky in the typical fashion of the Fearless Freaks ” a punchy digital […]