Primer: Schoolboy Q

Music Stories Born: Oct. 26, 1986, on an Army base in West Germany. Sounds like: A thugged-out West Coast version of Kid Cudi who wants to go clubbin’ with 50 Cent but ends up taking a bunch of ’shrooms an   More

 

Wednesday, May 16, 2012 MARTIN CIZMAR

Beyond Amélie

Yann Tiersen tones down the accordion and turns up the drums.

Music Stories For most of those who know his music, French songwriter Yann Tiersen will forever be associated with whimsical tunes played with a jaunty joie de vivre on an accordion. But ask Devin Gallagher,    More

 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012 ROBERT HAM

Q&A: Ian Youngstrom of St. Johns Bizarre

Music Stories When the St. Johns Bizarre began six years ago, it was a low-profile street fair with crafts, beer and bands. Today it’s a slightly higher-profile street fair with more crafts, more beer and rea   More

 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012 CASEY JARMAN

Primer: Imperial Teen

Music Stories Formed: 1994 in San Francisco.  Sounds like: A series of intense couple fights that always end in cuddling. For fans of: Sonic Youth, Electric Light Orchestra, the Dandy Warhols, Letters to Cle   More

 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012 CASEY JARMAN

Blowback

How Colin Stetson helped save the sax from cheesy ’80s purgatory.

Music Stories Last year was a good one for the sax. From the commercial airwaves (Lady Gaga’s “Edge of Glory,” Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night”) to the indie blogosphere (Destroyer’s Kaputt, Tune-   More

 

Wednesday, May 2, 2012 JONATHAN FROCHTZWAJG

Lotus Plaza: Monday, May 7

Dreamboat/Deerhunter Lockett Pundt takes his newly epic show on the road.

Music Stories [UNCHAINED MELODIES] The idolization of handsome young male musicians is not the sole province of Beatlemania, Tiger Beat magazine or the Jonas family. Lockett Pundt, Lotus Plaza’s frontman and a    More

 

Wednesday, May 2, 2012 CASEY JARMAN

Primer: Mahmoud Ahmed

Music Stories Born: 1941 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Sounds like: The most heartfelt, amazing love letter imaginable in a language you probably don’t understand. For fans of: Aster Aweke, Mulatu Astatke, The Eith   More

 

Wednesday, May 2, 2012 CASEY JARMAN

The Trip

How an old Chevy, the Army and Art Blakey made Cedar Walton’s career.

Music Stories Some people go to New York to be discovered. When jazz pianist Cedar Walton drove his Chevy across the country to get there in 1955, it was for anonymity. “Everybody knew me in Dallas,” he rec   More

 

Wednesday, April 25, 2012 CASEY JARMAN

Jacaszek: Sunday, April 29

Pioneering Polish composer Michal Jacaszek’s music is part man, part machine.

Music Stories [ELECTROACOUSTIC] The lines separating traditional acoustic music and music that requires laptops, synthesizers or drum machines have been getting blurry as of late. The crisscross has roots goi   More

 

Wednesday, April 25, 2012 ROBERT HAM

Primer: Bettye LaVette

Music Stories Born: Betty Haskins, Jan. 29, 1946 Sounds like: A throwback—the good kind—to the chitlin’ circuit, armed with a savvy, personalized rock repertoire. For fans of: Tina Turner, crossover R&B   More

 

Wednesday, April 25, 2012 JEFF ROSENBERG