Photo: Neil Krug Unknown Mortal Orchestra is about as digital age as it gets. The Portland-based project, helmed by New Zealand export Ruban Nielson, has generated a substantial amount of buzz in less than three years of existence — largely because of a rigorous touring schedule in which the gasps for air are scant. Yet […]
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Cosmostanza — Champs
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:normal;mso-outline-level:1″><span style=" Times New Roman” ,”serif”;mso-fareast-times=”” new=”” roman”;=”” mso-font-kerning:18.0pt;mso-fareast-language:es-bo”=””> The gruesome twosome of guitarist Maxwell Moore and drummer Raney Aboud shows what it’s learned on the heels of August’s awesome Rad Vibes, yet knows to keep the things that made Cosmostanza so intriguing in the first place: sugary hooks, youthful energy. Champs […]
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White flight
Photo: Diane White You’d be hard-pressed to find a more tightly knit band than White Mystery. Like Jeff the Brotherhood, but with one less Y chromosome, the Chicago garage-rock duo proves that the siblings who play together, stay together. “A brother and a sister, you kind of have this nurturing relationship,” singer and guitarist Alex […]
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One in Three
center Nathan Mickle “My parents always had a bunch of Frank Sinatra records lying around, along with Tony Bennett and Harry Connick Jr. … all of those guys I would sing along to,” Mickle said. “The records actually taught me how to sing before I even really got into it professionally.” A music career almost […]
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Big time
Dominic Lalli and Jeremy Salken — the two minds behind electronic duo Big Gigantic — met while playing in various jazz and funk bands around the greater Boulder, Colo., area before rooming together and deciding to collaborate. Old habits die hard. “[Lalli] said, ‘I’m making these beats, and I want to play sax over it.’ […]
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The Grown Ups — Dark Hearts
Take “Catalina,” for example: the consummate portrayal of the group’s strengths. The song’s first half consists of a hushed guitar strum, sparkling piano and a steady, mid-tempo rhythm to guide them. It’s morose and contemplative in a way that’s almost reminiscent of the dampened grandeur Modest Mouse perfected on The Moon & Antarctica. Yet at […]
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Samantha Crain — Kid Face
Likewise, her music sounds like the kind of earthy Americana that could have emerged from any of the last five decades. Both her vocal efficacy and reverential know-how have been and remain a testament to the uncommon maturity of her skill set. But if anything was holding the Shawnee native back, it was her aversion […]
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Cave in
“They say no news is good news,” sing The Caves, and given the six-year gap between the Kansas City, Mo., band’s loose formation and the release of its first record, Duplexiaville, maybe they’re right. The Caves find its players abandoning their earlier ties to harder rock, instead spending their lengthy off-season honing sweet harmonies, subtle […]
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Sam I am
Photo: Keisha Register They say home is where the heart is. For musicians, however, the grind of touring often can be a blessing — an escape from personal demons or the perils of comfort and complacency. But if you’re anything like Samantha Crain, life on the road is just a desire coming to fruition. Crain […]
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Lotus flowers
Photo: Tobin Voggesser American music’s evolving scope hasn’t played into the hands of many bands as well as it has for instrumental act Lotus. The collective of Deadheads with penchants for Aphex Twin and The Orb has ridden the rise of electronic dance music to sold-out tours and high-profile festival slots. “When we first started […]