A little blog entry from a little emo band coming out of PA got me thinking: Don’t expect a reunion show! I write this because we recently celebrated our third anniversary. Three years are a long time for a band such as ours, especially when you take into consideration that many of our predecessors and … [Read more…]
I’m happy to post a selection from the ongoing email interview I’m having with one Darren Walters, co-founder of Jade Tree Records. As a majority of my America Is Just A Word interviewees happen to be musicians, it’s great having Darren on board to give some perspective of the other goings on that helped transform … [Read more…]
It’s an absolute pleasure to bring Chris Simpson into the America Is Just A World fold. Part of my inclination for adding more interviews and material to what I’ve already written for the book is to really uncover the narratives that have been overlooked, and no band’s lifetime has the same mixture of mild coverage … [Read more…]
I’ve got an odd relationship with downloading. I’m usually outspoken against it when discussing the subject with most of my friends, but usually for a variety of reasons that you really can’t articulate when these types of conversations boil down to lots of yelling. I’ll diffuse the normal “record labels and artists” and “pirating” and … [Read more…]
I’d been meaning to post this up for quite a while, and here goes… I met up with Geoff Farina, frontman of the now-defunct and beloved band Karate, for an interview to be included in America Is Just A Word. Karate is one of a handful of bands that really challenged the ideals for what … [Read more…]
It’s been far too long since I last featured an interview featuring a musician that will be in the book America Is Juat A Word. Along comes Chris Leo to correct that error. Before his brother Ted Leo stole the hearts of the indie crowd in the aughts, Chris was making waves with his band … [Read more…]
I got this in the mail today: To explain, I was one of 382 folks to back record label Polyvinyl in their hopes to store/salvage 10,000 records using Kickstarter. Kickstarter is a new funding organization that helps artists, organizations, and individuals fund their various projects. It’s basically like a social networking site that allows creative … [Read more…]
Well, I haven’t gotten out to Warped just yet, but even so, it seems that I got the jump on the New York Times with my piece on the whole scrunk thing for The Phoenix. Ok, perhaps that’s a huuuuuge overstatement, but Jon Caramanica did notice the combination of electronics and screamo as sure as I … [Read more…]
Judging by the ever-changing combinations of letters on his website, Travis Morrison has apparently retired from music. Honestly, the whole thing seems a bit odd… perhaps the part where he says he’s relaxing in Brooklyn is a bit of a tip off… Same with the link merely to his Facebook page, a nice gesture, but … [Read more…]
A quick little post for the evening/day… I’m running into some odd technical difficulties for posting pieces of the latest interview for America Is Just A Word… but for some reason I keep running into some virtual hole in my idea. I’m just trying to combine some element of clean design and easy access for … [Read more…]