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Lydia Luce
Nashville-based Lydia Luce is self-releasing a gorgeous new album tomorrow. Dark River showcases Lydia’s captivating voice, with deeply personal lyrics and lush strings played and arranged by Luce herself. Even prior to the pandemic, Luce had quite a year- a painful breakup, followed by a solo trip to the Pacific Northwest where she learned to sit with her emotions, before returning home when the Nashville tornado quite literally ripped through her very home. Despite these challenges, Dark River faces these demons but true to Lydia’s unwillingness to be beaten down, it finds hope, strength and determination. We caught up with…
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Aaron Lee Tasjan’s Cyborg Manifesto : Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!
Donna Haraway’s 1985 essay, “The Cyborg Manifesto,” written for The Socialist Review, urges progressive thinkers to move past the colonialist, socially limiting paradigms used to define identity, instead to form coalitions based on affinity, celebrating that very “otherness” that oppressive ideological apparatuses have worked to denigrate. Haraway challenges the desire to classify and fit neatly into categories imposed upon beings by patriarchal institutions; warning that perpetuating these taxonomies is what has historically created subjugation of those outside the upper echelon. By thinking outside of these linguistic structures, one therefore thwarts and subverts the dominant regimes. As humans and technology evolve,…
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Loner folk legend Dave Bixby announces “Harbinger Orchestra”
Dave Bixby is a living folk legend, and quite literally developed a cult following. his definitive loner acid folk album, ‘Ode to Quetzalcoatl’ was recorded following a long period of time Dave spent in what he calls ‘the void’, a dark, depressive episode after a prolonged period of taking LSD almost daily. The haunting 1969 album was reissued by Spanish label Guerssen in 2009, catching the attention of private press collectors everywhere. Dave’s had a really fascinating life, beginning with his leadership within a Michigan-based Christian Cult only known as the Group. Always a loner and an adventurer, Dave left…
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Garrett T. Capps
I talked to San Antonio’s Garrett T. Capps, the mayor-elect, Sandwich King, and maker of great country rock and roll music. Garrett, both musically and personally, honors the past while making the rich traditions of Texas music truly his own, infusing cosmic krautrock, modular synth, and interstellar sounds with his band NASA Country to come up with something that resonates with all sorts of audiences. You can listen to our chat above. If you haven’t yet, you can find all of Garrett’s music on Bandcamp. He’s put out three fantastic albums and several EPs. I recommend listening chronologically – you…
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Upupayāma – Track by Track
Upupayāma is Alessio Ferrari, resident of a small mountain village in the Apennine mountains in Italy. Upupayāma’s self-titled debut is really an impressive feat – Alessio plays every instrument himself and the sound is as sophisticated and psychedelic as you’d expect from more seasoned loner psych players, with intricate musicianship, imaginative storytelling, invented languages, and field recordings, recorded in an old barn. Alessio describes his sound as “Kikagaku Moyo drinking tea in an Italian forest discussing Träd Gräs Och Stenar with an elf while he plays a flute,” which is apt. Mixed and mastered by Yui Kimijimai (recording engineer to…
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Finding Dark Peace with Leslie Mendelson
Leslie Mendelson is one of my favorite singer-songwriters. She writes really powerful songs that can break your heart like a twig in a mere second; she exudes confidence onstage but her lyrics, on her latest album particularly, are oh so vulnerable. She put out a great record, sparse yet heavy, just at the precipice of the pandemic that was all too timely, entitled If You Can’t Say Anything Nice… The record discusses dealing with anxiety and depression, among other things, which many listeners are likely able to relate to. Leslie is doing a show at TOF Virtual Nightclub next week…
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Dan Horne
You know Dan! He’s everywhere, especially this year. He’s produced, played on, or written on so many favorite albums – to name just a few from 2020 – Circles Around the Sun’s self-titled, Mapache’s From Liberty Street, Trummors’ Dropout City, Pacific Range’s High Upon the Mountain, some badass tracks from Mojohand, and now, his debut solo EP, The Motorcycle Song EP, is officially streaming everywhere. Tell me a little bit about the The Motorcycle Song EP. You play and sing everything by yourself, which is a stark contrast since so much of your work is so collaborative. How was it?…
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John Lee Shannon
John Lee Shannon met Neal Casal at the recording sessions for Zephaniah OHora’s Listening to the Music. As fellow guitarists and music lovers, they became fast friends and Neal became a big fan of John’s playing, hand-picking him to make up the band that would go on to record what would become Kenny Roby’s album The Reservoir. Like Neal, Shannon is a skilled, reliable player who therefore spends a lot of his time recording and playing with friends. After a few years of making demos which subsequently were put on hold as other projects took precedence, Shannon revealed a few…
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Zephaniah OHora
The thing about Zephaniah OHora that’s been discussed to death is some sense of astonishment that such a real deal country sound could come from New York City. Well, why not? As a newcomer to NYC, I’m personally grateful to Zeph for cultivating NYC’s country scene. He’s the guy in control of the live music schedule at Skinny Dennis, the best of the very few honky tonks in the five boroughs, and also the only place I’ve felt truly at home in New York, under a portrait of Willie’s watchful eye, Waylon on the jukebox, and Miller Lite in hand.…
