Posted by Tobias Carroll Originally based in Austin, Woven Bones play a fuzzed-out, bliss-inducing strain of rock music that owes as much to stripped-down garage and punk as it does to the wider sonic scopes of groups like Spacemen 3 and The Jesus and Mary Chain. Their first full-length, In and Out and Back Again (Hozac) was a fine distillation of these approaches, and their live sound, direct and compelling, made for some of the best shows I saw last […]
Band Booking: Nicole Atkins
Posted by Jason Diamond “She has been compared to Roy Orbison and singers from the Brill Building era.” If those words from Nicole Atkins Wikipedia entry doesn’t sell you on her, then we’re sorta sorry for you. How about a cover of her covering Can? Does that help? Listen: Nicole Atkins – “Vitamin C” (Can Cover) Atkins is a songstress of the highest order, and her choice in books is pretty stellar. Her new album, Mondo Amore, comes out Feb. […]
Band Booking: Future Islands
The first time I saw Future Islands, I was taken aback by how invested they were in what they were doing at that very moment. There was no pretense, no posturing, and they seemed to really enjoy playing music for a crowd that appreciated their music. People were freaking out; dancing like robots on Quaaludes, screaming and spraying beer cans like bottles of champagne. When I finally got to hear the Baltimore trio’s Thrill Jockey album, In Evening Air, I […]
Band Booking: Fergus & Geronimo
Posted by Tobias Carroll Fergus & Geronimo make pop songs that unfold in unexpected ways. Live, they add charged piano melodies to bristling, uptempo numbers; their recordings, including seven inches on the likes of Woodist and Tic Tac Totally and the album Unlearn on Hardly Art, occupy a more stylistically varied place. (My fellow Vol.1er Jason Diamond, on his Twitter feed, commented that they “are either the new Fugs or an updated version of National Lampoon’s Lemmings. Either way I […]
Band Booking: Owen Pallett
Posted by Jason Diamond Welcome to the first installment of Band Booking, a series where we ask some of our favorite musicians to talk about books. To start things off, we asked Owen Pallett. His most recent album, Heartland, was easily one of our favorites of 2010. For those who don’t know more about Pallett, he is the composer, violinist, keyboardist and songwriter also responsible for the 2006 Polaris Music Prize album He Poos Clouds; as well as the person […]