To celebrate the new Iggy & The Stooges album Ready To Die, we invited guitarist James Williamson to rifle through eMusic's catalog and talk us through some of his favorite albums. You can read about the legendary guitarist's choices below. Andrew Perry interviews the band about their remarkable comeback album here. more »
I interviewed Golden Grrrls before their show with Brilliant Colors in Olympia; they had just flown from London to Seattle to start their first U.S. tour. We ordered pizza and sat on the floor of Bikini Kill Records HQ to get to know one other. I quickly discovered they're record nerds who prefer nothing more than to geek out about music: Drummer/vocalist Eilidh Rodgers works in a record store owned by Stephen Pastel where my… more »
It's a gorgeous spring afternoon on the Lower East Side, and Laura Stevenson is talking about death. Not her fear of it so much as its inevitability — the fact that it's coming for all of us, and there's nothing we can do to stop it. That she delivers the observation in a bright, chipper, skipping voice just makes it feel more ominous. That, in part, is one of the most bewitching things about Wheel, Stevenson's… more »
As a live act, the musically volatile Dillinger Escape Plan are one of the last genuinely dangerous experimental metal bands going. Vocalist Greg Puciato’s forehead-slashing barbarism goes beyond shock rock straight into self-loathing and guitarist Ben Weinman’s onstage collisions with amps and gear often result in severe bodily harm.
But while The Dillinger Escape Plan’s live show is a subversive celebration of chaos in motion, their albums — especially from 2007′s Ire Works onward — are meticulous and almost scientific, inventive explorations of the way various musical styles can… more »
When MS MR surfaced in 2012, they were shrouded in mystery. At least initially, the New York duo of Lizzy Plapinger and Max Hershenow hid their identities, and instead let their music — a percussive-heavy amalgamation of ’90s R&B, British soul, gothy synthpop and neon-hued ’80s pop — speak for itself. The gimmick paid off, and yielded plenty of attention for MS MR’s debut EP, Candy Bar Creep Show, a versatile collection of dank trip-hop, sultry neo-soul and dramatic electropop.
Secondhand Rapture, MS MR’s full-length debut, combines this EP and another… more »
In Jenn Wasner’s other duo, Wye Oak, she creates diaphanous indie-rock that draws from shoegaze, the 4AD catalog and other similarly echoing sonic caverns. Despite their subterranean name, Dungeonesse isn’t like that. Instead, Wasner and fellow multi-instrumentalist Jon Ehrens craft synthpop that’s neon-lit and glaring in the places where Wye Oak is sepia-toned and shadowy. This is effervescent fantasy music that’s escapist in the best way, but still grounded in the realities that inspire the pair’s liberating flights of fancy.
Case in point: first single “Drive You Crazy.” Its skittering… more »
Calling all poseurs, dilettantes and part-time punks: Check your head and check your cred at the door. From Buzzcocks to Iceage, from dream-pop to chillwave, Gimme Indie Rock gives you the sickest vibes out of the scene that can't stand to be pigeonholed. Whether Dum Dum Girls or the Strange Boys, the Field Mice or Killer Mike, James Blake or PJ Harvey, you'll hear them all here — where it's totally OK to hang the… more »
