The Cure were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame last night. After being honored with a speech from Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and performing several songs onstage at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, the Cure frontman Robert Smith spoke to Rolling Stone, answering questions about the band's plans for the future. The Cure have already announced that they have a new album, their first since 2008's...
One of the most basic bits of Radiohead trivia is this: They named themselves after a Talking Heads song. Actually, they were called On A Friday first because they practiced on Fridays, but that's another story entirely. At some point they correctly decided "Radio Head," from the 1986 film and album True Stories, was a much better moniker. As such, the legacy of David Byrne and company has followed...
"I have taken out my Invisalign, and this is the album!" Billie Eilish announces at the outset of her debut album. The 17-year-old singer then collapses into hysterical laughter with a male cohort -- presumably her older brother, a fellow musician named Finneas O'Connell who's been her close collaborator ever since she made waves with debut single "Ocean Eyes" three years ago. It's an inauspicious...
Kikagaku Moyo hail from Tokyo, but they might as well descend from Atlantis, Oz, and the Shire all at once. A mighty five-piece that blend multiple guitars with a hodgepodge of pedals alongside a roving sitar, the band threads an evocative reinterpretation of stoner rock as something more worldly, ambient, and atmospheric. They're musicians that trade in the transportive power of psychedelic soundscapes,...
By the end of the '90s, Britpop had collapsed. Its primary and ancillary artists alike had taken the ideas and sounds of that dizzying moment as far as they could go. Some of the biggest names were only years away from breaking up, some drifted off into the periphery. Others forged new artistic paths far removed from the characteristics of the cultural firestorm they'd come to prominence within. And...
Picture this: I'm jamming Ulver's Nattens Madrigal as a winter storm whips around my headphones. Instead of burying the audio, the strong gales match the ebb and flow of the music perfectly. When "Of Wolf And Fear" drops into its acoustic break, the whistling wind is like a serendipitous counterpoint. I feel so in the moment, so connected to the music, nature and Nattens all part of a glorious whole....
Even in their earliest zine interviews, Mogwai had a way of undercutting their own seriousness. In the summer of 1996, when Britpop was still in its heyday, the Glasgow band traveled down to London to play a show at the Highbury Garage, where they also spoke with a fanzine called Algal Zonation. Then still a four-piece, their accomplishments to-date listed in the article included touring with the Pavement-esque...
Is there a 2010s indie band more misunderstood than the Drums? When Jonny Pierce's once-Brooklyn-based indie-pop project first emerged at the top of the decade with their indelible self-titled debut, it was with a wave of hype brought on by the typically mouth-foaming British music press and the local ubiquity afforded by notching multiple CMJ showcases. It's odd to think about the amount of buzz that...
Is there a 2010s indie band more misunderstood than the Drums? When Jonny Pierce’s once-Brooklyn-based indie-pop project first emerged at the top of the decade with their indelible self-titled debut, it was with a wave of hype brought on by the typically mouth-foaming British music press and the local ubiquity afforded by notching multiple CMJ…
When William Lindsay arrived at Drexel University in 2010, Philadelphia still lagged behind his hometown of Columbus as far as music scene credibility went. The Caracara frontman recalls a vibrant “pay-to-play” scene dominated by an early incarnation of Twenty One Pilots, “The coolest band that was crushing those 200-cap shows.” Metalcore and its mutant toxic…
For someone who’s perpetually ahead of the curve, Laura Stevenson rarely seems to get the praise she deserves. The New York-based singer-songwriter has spent the past decade penning the type of songs that you can’t help but hold close to your heart, occasionally wiggling them loose to share them with people close to you. There’s…
Today, Tim Showalter returns with Eraserland, his sixth album as Strand Of Oaks. It almost didn’t happen. As the touring behind 2017’s Hard Love was coming to a close, Showalter found himself defeated. After the wild journey from his 2014 breakthrough HEAL to its follow-up, something didn’t click. Unsatisfied with his band, with the project…
“Jailbreak The Tesla” is an evocative title, one that can work as a mantra for the Phoenix hip-hop trio that created it. “That was kind of the idea of Injury Reserve,” says Nathaniel Ritchie, the rapper also known as Ritchie With A T — “taking this thing that’s supposed to be this futuristic modern car,…
Throughout SXSW last week, there was one question everyone invested in this year’s crop of emerging indie names seemed to be asking: “Have you seen Black Midi yet?”
Tracking Down is a Stereogum franchise in which we talk to artists who have been out of the spotlight for a minute.
The last time Dido booked a tour, it was 2003 and the soft-pop singer was riding high on the success of mid-’00s radio megahits “Thank You,” “Here With Me,” “White Flag,”
Plenty of bands have long histories, forged from bonds of friendship formed in a distant childhood past. Shared upbringings, shared surroundings — these can provide good raw material for a couple artists to come together and define their identity within and against the rest of the world. In the case of Isaac deBroux-Slone and Raina…
Ever since the Malian “desert blues” band Tinariwen began to build an international audience at the dawn of the millennium, a steady stream of Saharan guitar music has been making its way around the world. The list of renowned Tuareg rock acts has grown to include the likes of Algeria’s Imarhan, Niger’s Kel Assouf, and…
Three years ago, Johanne Swanson released her first album as Yohuna, Patientness. Its title was a mantra — a reminder to stay calm during a period of upheaval that took Swanson from her native Wisconsin to New Mexico and Berlin, before landing in New York City, where she’s been ever since.
The title…
We’ve Got A File On You is a new reboot of an old-school Stereogum franchise. Once called Annotated Media Guide, these are interviews in which artists share the stories behind the extracurricular activities that dot their careers: acting gigs, guest appearances, random internet ephemera, etc.
When an artist gets 40 years in, chances…
Mercury Rev had a pretty good 2018, mostly because they had a great 1998. Though the band hadn’t released any music in a couple of years, in 2018 they became the beneficiaries of a free promotional campaign, thanks to the 20-year nostalgia cycle that inevitably spawns think pieces and retrospective listicles. And no…
When Noah Lennox began writing his new solo album, Buoys, he started with just a guitar. Though previous Panda Bear albums have emerged this way, they’ve resulted in increasingly widescreen visions such as 2011’s Tomboy and the euphoric glow of 2015’s Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper. But Buoys feels different because its skeletal framework…
Playing minimal metal at maximum volume, sound wave masseurs Sunn O))) are now entering their 21st year as the ne plus ultra of suffocating drone. Still searching for the most accurate representation of their famed, body-vibrating live performances, their upcoming eighth album — Life Metal, due in April — was recorded to tape with famed…
Jon Simmons admits he’s trying to be more direct in 2019, but it doesn’t come naturally. The Balance And Composure frontman carefully admits to the one criticism he’s taken to heart over the years — that his lyrics can run a bit vague compared to the stylish, slegdehammer alt-rock of his band.