To say this has been a trying summer for Pennsylvania punk band Handguns would be an understatement. “Touring has been total hell,” said founder and guitarist Jake Langley. “My singer quit, our drummer quit, we got a new drummer, he quit, and somehow, we are still here. I don’t know. We have had to find […]
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‘Yahu!
“I think, to be honest with you, most people have one thing to say,” Matthew Miller said. “They have one thing to put forward.” For Miller, better-known by his Hebrew and stage name, Matisyahu, that one binding theme is his Orthodox Jewish faith, an ever-unfolding struggle to grow closer to God. From this fount, he […]
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Soundcheck: Klipspringer, ‘The Trouble with Sebastian’
Words about a girlfriend who “likes to play chess in her birthday suit” belong most anywhere in its discography, from 1996’s “The Mind of Mandy Moon” (where the line resides within the delightfully raunchy “She Likes That Shit”) to “The Trouble with Sebastian,” the pop-rock quartet’s seventh album, which it digitally released July 26 through […]
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Vending machines
When The Venditos roll into a venue, they do it big. The humble rock band hailing from Oklahoma City doesn’t have a record deal or any sort of other financial backing, but it does enjoy a full-on tour bus, an old Greyhound that looks like the full shebang from the outside. Inside? Well, that’s a […]
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Switch on
Switchfoot’s songs are meant to be so much more than melodies. “It’s more than just catchy hooks that grasp a listener for a month out of their life,” said bassist Tim Foreman. “It feels like people are really on the journey with us. Music got me through a lot of tough times. Fortunately, I think […]
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Color of blight
There are several reasons why Norman’s Rainbows Are Free describes its sound as “heavy devil music.” There’s the heavy riffage, pounding percussion, mind-bending psychedelia, rants against religion and … well, this. “There’s the sacrifices, and our love for the dark lord,” bassist Chad Hogue said in deadpan. “You kind of need the devil to help […]
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Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks — Mirror Traffic
If you answered with “an improvement on Malkmus’ last effort flashing some of his funniest, snarkiest songwriting to date,” then you’re correct. Beck effectively tossed out the Jicks’ 2008 LP, “Real Emotional Trash,” replacing an album constituted of skilled, but too-far-extended guitar jams with one that paces more like Pavement’s “Wowee Zowee,” and draws influence […]
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Hair today
Hollywood hard rockers Warrant have done a lot of growing up. The glam-metal group used to party with the best of them in the early ’90s, touring the country with massive hits like “Cherry Pie” and “Heaven.” Now, if not early to bed, they are early to rise, having ditched most of the sex and […]
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This guy
When you live and breathe music like classically trained bassist Mike Silverman, it can be hard finding others to play with who are as obsessive. After a while, he quit trying. “I got kind of frustrated working with people,” said the Las Vegas-based Silverman. “It felt like if I was by myself, I could work […]
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Brady bunch
For alt-rock act Primus, the very thing that made it hard to break through is the thing that’s kept it from going away. “I think the key has been not being relevant, in the sense of music genres as they’ve come and gone, and we never really fit into any of them,” guitarist Larry LaLonde […]