THE SPRING ISSUE
Summoning the Sonic Sages
Text by Hunter Holcombe Photograph by Martien Mulder If relationships were like bands, you’d want yours to be Sonic Youth. The many torrid, short-lived love affairs of rock – Stone Roses, Nirvana – burned hot while they lasted, but, for reasons ranging from drugs to incompatibility to fame to death, could never physically survive for […]
Gypsies, Tramps, and Devendra Banhart
Text by Adam Pollock Photograph by Todd Cole Add the title Musical Anthropologist to the already diverse resumé of freak-folk pioneer Devendra Banhart. For without this Texan-Venezualan Boho-about-town’s penchant for creating roving bands of “artistic families,” most of us would never have heard of Vashti Bunyan, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and the Watts Prophets. “I get […]
Film Reviews
I Like Killing Flies Directed by Matt Mahurin The greasy spoon, long a staple of Americana, is paid an affectionate tribute in director Matt Mahurin’s new documentary. The film focuses on Shopsin’s, a Greenwich Village restaurant popular as much for its unusual specialties as for the eatery’s lovably crusty owner and cook, Kenny Shopsin. In […]
The Autonomy of Brazilian Cinema
Text by Hanna Eves National film industries ebb and flow, and when they flow, critics inevitably start bandying about the phrase “new wave.” In recent years, there has been a tremendous resurgence of successful filmmaking in Brazil, causing many to sit up and take notice. For example, Carlos Diegues’ God is Brazilian (2003) took the […]
Leo Fitzpatrick’s Composed Cool
Text by Patrick Knowles Photograph by Glynnis McDaris The measure of celebrity is a tricky thing to gauge. These days, an actor’s notoriety is more often defined by leaked sex videos and internet buzz than box office bottom lines. So, it’s an odd testament of one’s career when say, some random person creates a fake […]
Larry Clark: A Portrait of the Artist as an Outsiders
Text by Mila Zuo Photographs by Brigette Sire Larry Clark is sometimes depicted as a detached voyeur whose books and films are a divination into the secret and seedy lives of teenagers. On the contrary – Clark is co-conspirator in his tales, whether by intimating the story via his own personal narrative of sex, drugs […]
White Noise
This Heat The fear of mutually assured destruction can be a wonderful source of inspiration. For This Heat, it helped spawn Deceit and Health & Efficiency EP, records that forged progressive and post-punk by dismembering the Genesis-soiled corpse of the ’70s. Twenty-five years after the band’s conception, record company ReR is reissuing the band’s notoriously […]
Matt and Kim: Bubblegum Apocalypse
Text by Matthew Nestel Photograph by Nicholas Chatfield-Taylor A Sunday afternoon at a loft space in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, delivers a cluster of brownbaggers nursing tall boy Colt 45s and DIYers ready to dance to a Matt and Kim set. It’s a tame bunch compared to the norm of gigs bordering on Armageddon. Kids hoard […]
Smoosh Operators
Text by Lee Wang Photograph by Zen Sekizawa “We’re getting older, so yes, we sound different,” says keyboardist and singer Asya of indie pop sensation Smoosh about their new record. But while other bands say their sound has matured, it’s hard to doubt Smoosh. After all, they’re barely teenagers. Asya, 14, and her sister Chloe, […]
Relm’s Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Text by Steven Leckart Photograph by Jerome Gacula Whether it’s a chubby teen whipping around a homemade lightsaber or Midwestern trailer park kids doing backyard piledrivers, internet video clips are rocking our world. Missed Tom Cruise’s couch dance on Oprah? Just hit up the Internet, where sites like YouTube.com offer a look at seemingly everything. […]
As the Knife Silently Shouts
Text by Fiona Killackey Photograph by Elin Berge Olof Dreijer doesn’t like to talk about his favorite food. “I don’t usually answer those questions,” he admits from his studio in Berlin, “I always get so annoyed when I read [about] artists I like and their [favorite] food.” Probed to suggest a favorite moment or favorite […]
Banks Violette: Black Metal Dreams
Text by Franklin Melendez Like the rumblings of black metal, the work of Banks Violette resonates with the darker dreams of rock and roll. His sculptures of musical paraphernalia – drum sets, speakers, scaffolding – reverberate like a wall of sound: austere, impassive, nearly abstract. Yet a dark romanticism runs throughout; almost subsonic, it emerges […]
A Novel Distraction
Text by Steven Leckart Photograph by Kava Gorna It took Jack Kerouac three weeks (plus coffee and Benzedrine) to churn out On the Road. For the Walkmen, three weeks wasn’t enough to finish their novel, but it did get the ball rolling. Started during a 2004 trek through the Midwest, they collectively penned John’s Journey […]
Valkommen Till Sverige!
José González El Perro Del Mar Martin McFaul Frida Hyvönen Text by Nina Renata Aron Photographs by Chris Mottalini Considering Sweden’s size and its relatively homogenous cultural and ethnic makeup, the nation’s musical offerings are far more dynamic than one might expect. With roots in Nordic folk – a melancholic, Slavic-sounding affair thick with accordion […]
Street Pulse: New York
The musicians featured below hail from the Big Apple, one of our favorite cities in the world. These rockers share their favorite music, thoughts on touring and stage style. The stage is where they make people go crazy, sweat like crazy and most importantly, rock out like crazy. 1 What do you think about when […]
