Trip Out to 2009’s Best Unheard Music
From Trans Am’s revved jams to chilled hypnotics by Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin, there’s plenty of unfairly unheard music from 2009. Wrap your ears around a head-trip’s worth in the streams […]
interviews
Viggo Mortensen’s Apocalyptic Road
“Further devastation of the air, land and sea is obviously a very real possibility.”
The Prisoner: An All-Star Appreciation
Its revolutionary mix of geopolitics, sci-fi and psychedelia has influenced not just television, but also music, comics, film and more.
Devo Returns, This Time With Rugs!
“De-evolution seems even more a part of our daily reality than ever. There is more misinformation, humans have overrun the planet, and it is not nuclear bombs we must fear, but the human mind. Or lack of it.”
The Prisoner Inspires Dhani Harrison’s TheNewNo2 Experiment
“It’s kind of like opening up a massive can of worms.”
Margaret Atwood, Apocalyptic Optimist
When people first started writing this stuff, they didn’t call it science fiction.
The Happy Hollows Cast Spells On Me
Led by unhinged front woman Sarah Neghadari, Los Angeles power trio The Happy Hollows make deranged art-rock with one foot in alternative music’s past and another in the YouTube future. […]
Difference Engine Reboots, Recomputes
“A friend suggested the William Gibson and Bruce Sterling book title for our band name, and we immediately took to it, since it encompassed our sound, which is a blend of human and machine.”
Motion Comic Or Illustrated Film?
Comics are coming to life these days, on screens big and small. They’re pwning box offices in Hollywood and Flash-animated versions are ruling downloads in iTunes. So what to call […]
The Black Keys’ Drummer Creates Band Called Drummer With Drummer Pals
One of the most fun interviews I’ve conducted recently was with a hung-over Patrick Carney, drummer for The Black Keys and architect of the new band called …Drummer!
They Might Be Giants Blinds With Science
The two Johns of They Might Be Giants have been captivating my mind and spine for over 25 years now. Lately, they’ve been hooking kid brains with several smart but […]
Resurgent Autolux Shreds Sonic Envelope
My new favorite band is back at last. Which is stellar, considering its criminally underrated debut Future Perfect dropped in 2004 and tied Sleater-Kinney’s deafening The Woods for album of […]
Kim Deal Embraces The Breeders’ Fate
I caught up with the Deals to talk about Bob Marley, Jessica Simpson, the digital-analog divide, and the end of the music industry as we know it.
Metric’s Emily Haines Ponders Earth’s Erotic Apocalypse
One of my favorite bands in the world is Canada’s Metric, which is led by the irrepressible Emily Haines. She’s smart and sexy with a gift for poetry and philosophy. […]
Girl In A Coma: It’s Serious
Man, I’ve got many interviews in the bag that I’ve yet to float on Morphizm. This was a cool one, with a Texas trio of growing power, who happen to […]
Jeff Lemire’s The Nobody Takes Invisible Man To Twin Peaks
But like Lynch’s Peaks before it, The Nobody‘s impressive science lies not in the mad experiments of the Invisible Man, or the Nobody, but in its subtle dissection of psychology and interpersonal relationships.
Hydrogen Sulfide Is A Nasty Way For Life On Earth to Die
Unfortunately, you can usually find H2S whenever and wherever you’ve got mass extinctions.
Sonic Beacons: An Interview With Tortoise
Tortoise’s Beacons of Ancestorship, a potent dose of unclassifiable sound that veers from dub, funk and hip-hop to jazz, punk and rock without ever dissipating into incoherence, is the Chicago-based […]
The Kills Fall Through The Kracks
I interviewed The Kills’ Allison Mosshart, who is now fronting Jack White’s new band The Dead Weather, about her various groups, The Mighty Boosh, why The Killers aren’t cool and […]
Grand Duchy, Black Francis’ Family Affair
So I rapped with the pair for Rolling Stone and reviewed the disc for Metromix. All is well.
Neil Gaiman’s Final Love Letter to Batman
“I wanted it to have that love in there. I wanted to write the last Batman with honor and love.”
Mr. Lif Walks the Talk
“Whether you’re a suit with a desk job or a creative artist, you are still programmed to work. You can never ultimately escape from your responsibilities.”
Pop Lifer Robyn Hitchcock Dreams of Oslo, Synesthesia, Snow
Robyn Hitchcock is a gentleman, an artist and one hell of a prolific songwriter. From his work in the ’70s with The Soft Boys to his escape-minded recent effort Goodnight […]
Grant Morrison Gets Deep On Superman, Batman, Cosmology, Crisis
From mind-warping revisions of comic book heroes in All-Star Superman, Batman R.I.P. and Final Crisis, to pop-cultural and philosophical exegeses like The Invisibles, The Filth and We3, brainiac graphic novelist Grant Morrison is a master of the Gordian-knot narrative.
Tearing Down The Century of the Self With And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead
So for the band’s latest effort, named after Adam Curtis’ The Century of Self, I went on the blitz for Wired, Metromix and Filter.