James Penycate is not is a hard working and dedicated businessman who has an undying love for sound. A friend of mine for years, he has proven to be one of the most passionate humans I know, and absolutely lusts after the unique. After working with some of our favorites (i.e Best Coast, Gold Panda, Darwin Deez) his personal PR brand grew to be undeniable and unstoppable.
Julian Koster is the ringleader of the half-human, half-machine imagination-fueled group called The Music Tapes. Over a decade ago he was an integral member of Neutral Milk Hotel and today he still embodies the undying spirit of the Elephant 6 collective. But all of this is just a subsidiary of an increasingly rare and purist attitude towards the making and sharing of music. He spends more time on the road than in any permanent home, a necessary evil to fulfill his creative addiction. Julian is an alchemist of illusion and invention, drawing from his wide palette of instrumentation to invite listeners to his sonic habitat, foreign but warming.
In recent years, Julian established a tradition of embarking on a caroling tour around Christmastime. He, along with a revolving cast of characters, will visit homes that are willing to play host to this unconventional group of carolers. Julian took time to talk to me amidst his initial travels for this year’s edition of the caroling route.
A look at Dublin’s underground experimental and pop scenes
A translated interview with Álvaro Solar of Chilean garage rock quartet Protistas
Singer-guitarist Sarah Cronin is a dynamic visual artist herself. She is responsible for the dreamy artwork that adorns the band’s album covers and show posters, providing a visual identity that’s at times just as important as their dreamy indie-pop sound.
August 9, 2010 at Great Scott in Allston, Massachusetts.
Dent May is difficult to categorize. For one thing, with his poppy sound and cuddly lyrics, he’s arguably the most accessible musician signed to Paw Tracks right now. For another, he’s a tried and true country boy, but he lived in New York City, but his sound is so beach-y it sounds straight out of SoCal. To clear this up, May took some time out of his rather confusing life to talk to Artist Advocacy about the country, the city, the summer, and swine flu.
[Mexican Summer, 2010] words//stephanie cafarella Best Coast – Boyfriend Weed, boys and an increasingly famous orange tabby are indisputably the lyrical mainstays of Californian surf/garage-pop duo Best Coast’s debut full-length, appropriately titled, Crazy for You. The album consists of sunny, refreshingly simple lo-fi jams that sound as though they were stolen directly from the pages [...]
Canadian musician Tonetta is the savior of lo-fi music. Free from the irony associated with chillwave and shitgaze, he crafts poetically course tunes using whatever equipment is available, with lyrics like the raunchiest passages of a William S. Burroughs novel. He has been recording these songs for nearly three decades, and only recently released his first album, 777, on Black Tent Press. I had the honor of speaking to him over the phone about his music, his videos, and his life.
Tame Impala will take you on a journey. ‘What kind of journey?’ you may ask. A saga that starts in the subconscious, travels through the psyche, says what’s up to Freud, funnels into the bloodstream, and courses through your veins with densely textured and infectious riffs. The Perth quartet’s deep-groove psychedelic sounds have caught the attention of many over the past few weeks, as they trek along their first US tour in support of their debut album, Innerspeaker. I spoke with the band’s singer/guitarist/mastermind Kevin Parker on a day off during the group’s jaunt of dates opening for MGMT.