Photo by Josh Goleman

Actual guitar-toting indie-rock bands are about as endangered as Siberian Tigers these days, but Cymbals Eat Guitars are keeping the music very much alive. On the band’s debut album, Why There Are Mountains, they nodded toward ‘90s heroes such as Pavement and Built to Spill; this year’s triumphant sophomore effort, Lenses Alien, is a broader, bolder release that finds the group balancing between extremes: eight-minute opuses compete with three-minute pop gems, full-throated harmonies nudge up against catastrophic dissonance. We spoke with bassist Matthew Whipple last month to discuss the band’s secret pedal-making weapon, Elliott Smith’s influence and their New Jersey connection with Yuck. The band plays the Echo tonight.

David Greenwald: The album’s been out a week now, how has the response been so far?
Matthew Whipple: The response has been really great so far. It wouldn’t be accurate to say there wasn’t a certain amount of hand-wringing on our part about what the critical response was going to be because obviously that was a big part of our initial success with the last record but it’s been really pleasant thus far. We’ve been really pleased.

DG: It seems like the band was able to take its time between the debut album and this one. Did you feel like that was the case?
MW: Actually, on our end it feels like we never stopped working, when it comes to touring and then suspending touring to finish writing the record. It’s different sides of the business of being a band but we’ve been pretty much noses to the grindstone for what feels like the past two, two-and-a-half years.

DG: How much time did you spend recording the album?
MW: Actually recording, we were only in the studio for 15 days. Our producer, John Agnello, kept the vibe very workmanlike but relaxed. We got a lot done in a very short amount of time. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by Shiver_Shi

Sweden’s the Radio Dept. are an enigmatic band — and they like it that way. Despite a fervent Internet fan base and routine Hype Machine chart domination, the rough-edged dream-pop group doesn’t have a website and spent the three years leading up to 2010 album of the year Clinging to a Scheme in the studio keeping quiet, releasing the occasional single as planned album release dates came and went. This year, though, the Radio Dept. are ready to make some noise, releasing a two-disc career overview singles collection, playing Los Angeles for the first time in their 10-year history tonight and bringing their synthesizer assault to the Coachella Music Festival in April. I caught up with the band’s Johan Duncanson and Martin Larsson on Skype to discuss their marathon recording process, why it’s good to stay mysterious and collaborating with countryman Jens Lekman. Read the rest of this entry »

In a Skype interview early this morning, the Radio Dept. let slip that they’re heading into the studio to start the follow-up to 2010 album of the year Clinging to a Scheme. “We’re recording,” Martin Larsson said. “Next week, we start.”

This time, however, they’re hoping to avoid missing — or setting — release date deadlines.

“We don’t want to promise anything because that’s what happened the last time,” Johan Duncanson said. “We said to our label that we’re going to have an album finished by July or something in 2007, then they posted it on their website and it took another three years. So we’ll see.”

The group also addressed a long-ago rumored collaboration with fellow Swede Jens Lekman, which could still be in the works.

“I got a virus on my computer, I [had] just started working on some stuff that he sent me,” Duncanson said. “That was back in 2005. I lost the songs and then we’ve never had another go at it. But we’ve been talking about it on and off as recent as just a couple of weeks ago. So we’ll see what happens.”

In the meantime, the band has a new EP, a two-disc singles set, a February L.A. date — the band’s first SoCal show ever — and Coachella to look forward to. Look for my full interview with the band in the weeks to come.

Daedalus / photo by Phil Merkow

Editor’s Note: During their time at the Lightning in a Bottle Festival in Orange County a few weeks back, husband-and-wife Rawkblog contributors Phil and Jennifer Larsen Merkow took a break from the block-rockin’ beats to catch a few minutes with Do LaB executive producer Jesse Fleming. They talked about LIB, Do LaB’s happy relationship with Coachella and bringing the organization’s scene around the world. Might as well jump! Read the rest of this entry »

All photos by David Greenwald

Toro Y Moi (roughly, “Bull and I”) is the matadorial project of Chaz Bundick, a 23-year-old South Carolina native. After a pair of self-released CD-Rs began circulating through blogs and message boards in 2009, Toro Y Moi’s official debut, Causers of This, became one of 2010′s most anticipated albums. With influences ranging from hip-hop to house to New Wave, Causers is the most fascinating release yet under the broadening quote-unquote chillwave umbrella. Bundick sat down with me at SXSW last month to talk about his upcoming sophomore album, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Lady Gaga and becoming a style icon. He plays the Echo tonight with the Ruby Suns and busy bunnies Pepper Rabbit. Read the rest of this entry »

All photos by David Greenwald

Tonight at the Echo, Miles Kurosky will play a Los Angeles club show for the first time since headlining the Troubadour on October 3, 2003, as the frontman of Beulah, a performance captured in the documentary A Good Band is Easy To Kill. In the intervening years, Beulah broke up and Kurosky’s body broke down, with shoulder surgeries leaving guitar playing temporarily out of the question and an intestinal condition adding injury to, well, injury. Now, he’s back with an catchy new record, a crackerjack new band and a lot to say. I caught up with the musician during his week at SXSW last month after he kicked off the festival’s second day with a performance at Paste’s showcase at the Galaxy Room backyard.

David Greenwald: Your show at Amoeba Music in March was your first time on stage again in six years, is that right?
Miles Kurosky: Yeah, it was interesting. It was fun, there were a lot of people so that was nice. I haven’t been on a stage in six years, I haven’t played a guitar really except for making little spurts of the record for six years. Today and yesterday were probably the first couple days that I felt sorta normal on stage.

It’s difficult – I don’t know how to explain it. Being away for a long time, when you’re away long enough, what happens is you start to think like, it’s easy to be away. I could easily drop out for another six years, 10 years, and it wouldn’t matter. Because in those six years, the last thing in the world I was was Miles from Beulah. Read the rest of this entry »

All photos by David Greenwald

2009 was a great and terrible year for New York’s Harlem Shakes: the band released one of the best albums of the year (not to mention decade) with Technicolor Health, took what should’ve been a victory lap tour opening for Passion Pit, and abruptly called it quits. But guitarist Todd Goldstein was unwilling to drop the torch, reissuing Kids Aflame — the rewarding debut of his previously shelved solo project, ARMS — and looking ahead to his next record. In a phone conversation conducted just before New Year’s, Todd and I talked about his penchant for guitar faces, why Harlem Shakes called it quits and his favorite bands of the decade. Read the rest of this entry »

Interviews and shaky camera work (my first time, sorry, cinephiles) performed by yours truly at the Fantastic Mr. Fox Los Angeles premiere at the AFI Fest. The longer print versions are here and here; my video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »