Band Booking: Talking Collaborations, Tour Reading, and Chris Abani with Debo Band

The debut album from Boston’s Debo Band uses Ethiopian jazz and pop of the 1960s and 1970s as a starting point for a sound that incorporates numerous musical traditions into a refreshing, catchy whole. In his review of the album for Pitchfork, Joe Tangari noted that “you’ll hear plenty of fresh ideas here, as the band spikes its arrangements with hints of Romany brass and even Celtic melody.” We caught up with saxophonist and bandleader Danny Mekonnen via email.

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Band Booking: Silent Drape Runners One Year of David Lynch-Inspired Sounds

The best way to describe the sort of music that Sophie Weiner and Russ Marshalek make is to say it’s pretty much like what you’d get if you had Portishead jamming with Bradford Cox in the Black and White Lodge. One year after coming together and naming their project after Nadine Hurley’s invention, the duo have garnered a good amount of notice both for their own recordings, and well as the “re-soundtracking” they’ve done for films like Twin Peaks: Fire […]

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Band Booking: Of Band Names and Novels With Ray Raposa

Ray Raposa first caught my attention with Cathedral, the 2004 album from his band Castanets. Since then, he’s made harrowing, sometimes blissful music over a number of albums, all of it smart, visceral, and philosophically illuminating. Raymond Byron and the White Freighter is his latest project; Little Death Shaker, just released on Asthmatic Kitty, is their debut — it shows off a looser, more feedback-heavy side of Raposa’s songwriting. We caught up via email to discuss the state of his assorted projects […]

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Band Booking: Talking Zines, Vonnegut, and the Beats With Blessed Feathers

Lately, I’ve been very impressed with Peaceful Beasts in an Ocean of Waves, the new album from Blessed Feathers. Centered around the duo of Donivan Berube and Jacquelyn Beaupre (and featuring contributions from Thor Harris of Swans and Shearwater), the group plays taut, beautifully unsettling folk-influenced music. It doesn’t hurt that Berube is also the editor of a zine, Sleeping in a Torn Quilt/Dreaming of Gold, featuring an ambitious blend of art, writing, and music. With that in mind, I chatted with Berube […]

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Band Booking: Talking Books, Music, and Atheism with Brooklyn’s Natureboy

Natureboy is the musical project of singer/songwriter Sara Kermanshahi and producer Cedar Apffel. I’ve been watching them play for years in Brooklyn and recently caught their June series of shows at Pianos in the Lower East Side. Their work is defined by Sara’s unique voice, which perches atop a canopy of echoing guitars and synths, managing to sound both sullen and beautiful. Knowing that they were just finishing a new album, I invited them over to my house for beers […]

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Band Booking: Talking D’Aulaire’s Mythology, Crafting Lyrics, and The KLF With Brooklyn’s Phone Tag

  Phone Tag is the musical project of multi-instrumentalist Gryphon Graham, formerly of Austin, Texas. Along with Bodhi Landa, and Eliza Walton the band makes soft electronic pop with unabashedly attractive melodies and harmonies. I first saw them during CMJ last year, playing a show at my old loft. The first thought that crossed my mind was that they were too damn good to be playing there. Since then, I’ve seen them play at Cameo and watched their name pop […]

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Vancouver Landscapes and Johnny Ramone’s Book: Band Booking With White Lung

Listening to White Lung’s fantastic second album Sorry, you might be tempted to speak in rapturous terms about their music, and to make unexpected connections between their sound and that of their punk rock forebears. The bands in which Rick Froberg has played — Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes in particular– come to mind, but so does the sorely-missed Scottish postpunk group Life Without Buildings. It’s visceral yet complex stuff, and it doesn’t hurt that vocalist Mish Way is […]

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