Mark James

​Over the last several years, Super Furry Animals ringleader Gruff Rhys has quietly released a few solo albums. 2005's Yr Atal Genhedlaeth was sung entirely in Welsh; 2007's Candylion relied mostly on sunny acoustic twiddlers. Both worked to distance himself from the weirdo psych-pop he'd cultivated with the Super Furrys. His third solo album, Hotel Shampoo (Wichita), came out earlier this month, and is named after his longtime practice of hoarding tiny bottles of personal-care products while he's on tour.

Shampoo resembles Rhys's work with the Furries in that it's full of rather lush orchestral pop tunes that continue on with his wit and self-deprecation... or what sounds like it. He's been a bit of a pickle to try and decipher over the years. Sound of the City recently spoke with him and found he was a pleasant enough fellow, although he revealed himself as one of those guys who, oddly enough, enunciates better on record than in conversation.

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​Back in 2009, the Antlers burst onto the scene with an explosive, utterly sad album called Hospice, which vocalist/guitarist Peter Silberman wrote about the relationship between a hospice worker and a terminally ill patient. They garnered a handful of Arcade Fire comparisons (which kinda bugged Silberman) while being critically lauded for balancing their willingness to be utterly human on record with powerful live shows that could move even the most stoic individuals.

This week, the Antlers return with Burst Apart, a ten-song collection that relies less on the swells that dominated Hospice and more on intricate, atmospheric compositions. They've slowed themselves down a bit, but that doesn't mean they've become boring. Silberman's still one of today's best brooders--and a big dog lover, too. Sound of the City spoke with him last week from his home in Brooklyn.

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Darren Ankenmann

We were sent this.

Over July 4th weekend, Liz Phair released Funstyle, her first full length in five years. For just five dollars for a full album download, the 11 tracks came with a message: the music within cost her relationships with her management company and ATO Records, who'd just enthusiastically reissued her 1993 classic album, Exile in Guyville. As par for Liz Phair's last 10 years, Funstyle sent the Phair faithful into a tizzy, with its notable nods to Bollywood, humorous scatting about her recent career troubles, and ethereal electronic arrangements.

Through a distribution company called Rocket Science Ventures, Funstyle received an official release on October 19 and along with it comes 10 songs from the much bootlegged Girlysound tapes, four-track recordings that served as precursors to Guyville. Phair is headlining the Bowery Ballroom on Monday, December 13--tickets go on sale today at noon. Sound of the City recently caught up with Phair, who spoke candidly about her experience with Capitol Records in the early 2000s, letting go of Guyville, and her work as a composer for televisions shows such as 90210 and In Plain Sight.

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photo by Steve Gullick

Far right: Stephen McBean

Vancouver's Black Mountain are usually considered two things: 1) a musical collective spearheaded by guitarist/vocalist Stephen McBean; 2) heir apparent to some vague Black Sabbath torch. While the former isn't necessarily true--they've settled down as a five piece--their first two albums did demonstrate a striking fondness for sweet riffs. This September they returned with their third album Wilderness Heart. The metal still flourishes on cuts like "Old Fangs" and "Let Spirits Ride," but overall the devil-horn driven aesthetic has been exchanged a bit for more softer, flick-your-Bic moments.

Since Black Mountain headline the Bowery Ballroom tonight and the Music Hall of Williamsburg tomorrow, November 4, Sound of the City spoke with McBean about why bands don't struggle anymore, soup-kitchen touring, and the relative meaning of the sonic term "heavy."

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http://yfrog.com/1xeafoj

Roger Waters Performs The Wall
Madison Square Garden
Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Better Than: Homeroom

If you've never seen a man use a remote control to fly a massive inflatable black pig to the delight of 20,000 or so people--you really should. It's fascinating. Such a beast emerged next to me, from the shadows of a largely constructed white wall that had been erected over the last hour and a half. And ducking next to the end of an empty, obstructed view row was a bearded man, probably in his early 30s, controlling this flying pig with precision, as Waters and his band chugged through one of The Wall's most beloved tunes, "Run Like Hell." Never was there any doubt that this pig was going to crash into us--that's how smoothly it glided through the Garden.

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Mikey Ayers

iPhone paparazzi

Miranda Lambert
Terminal 5
Wednesday, September 29

Better than: a sixpack of Miller after gettin' that first buck of the season

Of all things to prop up a mike stand, a simulated shotgun works pretty well, as country music's current queen Miranda Lambert showed off during "Gunpowder and Lead," the anthemic revenge tale that makes anyone with testicles cross their legs and anyone with a bad testicle experience whoop with joy. As I said a few years back, Lambert's perceived authenticity is welcomed, cherished and honored within and outside the country music landscape because she seems to be an honest to God shit-kicker, one of them redneck chicks (her words) you hear about, that found her way through Bacardi (her words) and got a tattoo much to Daddy's dismay (again, hers). But when it comes down to it, she tells us she just wants to "sit around the campfire and have a beer." Don't we all--sure would be nice to indulge once in awhile without having to rent a car, a cabin and an EZPass. It's borderline unfair for her to ride into town, bragging about campfires and such, where at most we can hope for is a city trashcan set on fire by some drunk NYU kids.

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​Three years ago, I spoke with ex-Galaxie 500/Luna principle Dean Wareham about jumping into a full-time band with his wife (and Luna bassist) Britta Phillips and releasing their sultry, French-pop inspired Back Numbers, which was Wareham's first major post-Luna effort. Since then he's released Black Postcards, a memoir of his days growing up in New York, touring with his old bands, and the struggles "cult" musicians face trying to make a living as they grow older. And separately Dean & Britta have started their own record label, Double Feature Records, which will release their newest batch of material, 13 Most Beautiful...Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests, a two-disc set of music they wrote to accompany Warhol's screen tests.

Warhol filmed hundreds of Factory scenesters from 1964 to 1966, each "test" consisting of three-minute intervals when the subject was left alone in front of a rolling camera. Until Dean & Britta were commissioned to write music for a handful of them, the shorts had largely gone unseen. So while the "13 Screen Tests" shows are keeping them busy--the 50th screen test performance is set to take place on October 22 at NYU's Skirball Center--the Dean & Britta band are also hunkering down and dusting off the Galaxie 500 catalogue for a series of shows, kicking off on August 19 at the Bowery Ballroom.

We recently spoke with Wareham about these projects over breakfast in Brooklyn.

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Phil Knott

Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss

Sleigh Bells, the Brooklyn duo of former school teacher Alexis Krauss and former waiter/Poison The Well guitarist Derek Miller, have a rather apocalyptic presence, as we've previously noted. Hearing Treats for the first time, you might think this is somebody's dying boombox, left stranded with a warped cassette on some sad loop. But the more time you spend with it, the more Krauss's syrupy-sweet vocals blend with the abrasiveness that is Miller's half-programmed, half-not compositions. It works so well, partly because there's nothing else working like it.

This weekend, Sleigh Bells join labelmate/fan M.I.A., Rye Rye, Die Antwoord, and Theophilus London at the HARD Festival, which takes place Saturday, July 24 on Governor's Island. We spoke with Krauss and Miller earlier this week as they were driving to Montreal.

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Jason Creps

A.C. is the one in the middle

Ten years and five albums into their career, the New Pornographers are one of modern rock's more interesting success stories. A.C. Newman, Neko Case, and Dan Bejar of cult-prog act Destroyer dominate the group, all three expert songwriters at this point. Combined, their new album Together follows the same line that they've always towed: classic, 1960s Nuggets-style garage-rock hooks and quirky lyrics, with Newman commanding a majority of the songwriting duties. With that much talent in one space, you might suspect that the New Pornographers struggle with sounding bloated. But they don't overdo it: songs rarely go over four minutes and consistency is their defining quality.

This weekend the New Pornographers play two shows: the cavernous Terminal 5 on Saturday, June 19, and the tiny Bell House on Sunday, June 20. We caught up with Newman earlier this week in his Toronto hotel room.

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Sebastian Mylanarski

Holly Miranda

Known for being the face of Brooklyn rock act the Jealous Girlfriends, Holly Miranda quietly released her debut solo album The Magician's Private Library this past February. It's a washed-out, hazy record that has Miranda's airy voice sounding something like '80s 4AD meets old bluesy gospel. (This is a sound that TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek, who produced Magician, is well established at capturing.)

Miranda's spent most of spring as the opening act for Tegan & Sara and is winding down a short headlining tour tonight (still tickets left!) at the Bowery Ballroom. Later this summer, she'll join Metric and Joan as Policewoman at a Celebrate Brooklyn! event on August 5. We spoke with Miranda as she was stuck in traffic on the FDR.

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