Mark Rose

In Chicago during the early millennium, pop punk and emo bands reigned supreme and helped produce heavy hitters like Fall Out Boy who left a massive mark on alternative rock and paved the way for similar bands to come along and fit into the mold. In 2007, before Spitalfield could break through completely to that level of mainstream fame, the still young band that formed in 1998 while they were still sophomores in high school parted ways. Before the break-up, however, they had enough time to release a seminal album that has since become a must-have for kids interested in understanding the history and origins of emo.

Ten years after the release of the album, Remember Right Now, the band's line-up from that period has reunited for a ten-date tour that began in their hometown of Chicago. "I think it's going to be a great time to have fun and play some songs that meant a lot to us," says Mark Rose, Spitalfield's lead singer who has since launched a successful solo career as a singer-songwriter and helps run the songwriting service Downwrite. As Spitalfield prepares for the NYC date of their reunion at the Studio at Webster Hall tonight, we spoke with Rose about the band's past, present and possible future.

See also: Emo is Dead, Long Live Emo: 30 Bands Making it Safe to Hurt Again

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Greenway, foreground, with Napalm Death

By Nathan Smith

Most of the people who pass Mark "Barney" Greenway in the street every day almost certainly have no idea what the man does for a living. His sensible haircut, unassuming demeanor and soft-spoken Birmingham accent betray nothing of his status as one of the most ferocious and accomplished voices in the gruesome history of extreme metal.

For the past 23 years, however, Greenway has toured the world as the front man for Napalm Death, the grindcore originators who have continuously pushed the boundaries of abrasive sound in every direction. Tonight, Greenway and company hit town to shatter eardrums at Music Hall of Williamsburg as part of the Decibel Magazine tour featuring death-metal heavyweights Immolation and headlined by those godfathers of gore, Cannibal Corpse.

Each band has built a notorious legacy of brutality dating back to the '80s, making tonight's bill a showcase of underground legends. Just don't call it a nostalgia tour.

See also: Cannibal Corpse's Alex Webster and the Architecture of Horror Music

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It starts with a tap. And then another tap. A one-two, one-two, bouncing beat. A snare? Maybe, but it's muted. And then more pulses. The beat is shrinking--but somehow, it's still sharpening. More filters now, the beat is getting warmer. Skitzy. Slippery. A swirling echo rises underneath, led by a horn. And then, as the bumping grows, the bottom drops out. Three minutes later, the dark vocals finally hit:

Shadows turn to grey
A slave today
He cowered beyond reckless tracks of impulse
Made to stray around rough coasts
When grace is close to home

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When word started getting around about Portugal. the Man's next record, singer John Gourley put it out there that they'd be working with Brian Joseph Burton, aka Danger Mouse--of Gnarls Barkley, Gorillaz and The Grey Album fame--and that the band was toying with the idea of writing "their" Dark Side of the Moon. I couldn't help myself: I pictured these guys getting completely stoned and holing up in the studio projecting The Wizard of Oz on one of the walls while blasting the Pink Floyd classic and dashing off to the booth and boards as soon as the credits rolled with the intent to reinvent sound as we know it, so I asked Gourley, verbatim, if that's what happened.

Portugal. the Man perform tonight at Irving Plaza.

See also: Broken Bells, The Collaboration Between Danger Mouse and the Shins' James Mercer, Is For Lovers in New York

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Rodan

Indie four-piece Rodan formed in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1992 and played their last note together in 1994. In that time the band's core, guitarists Jason Noble and Jeff Mueller and bassist Tara Jane O'Neil, plus a carousel of drummers, Jon Cook, Jon Weiss and Kevin Coultas, recorded a whole lot of music but released only one well-received full-length. And though Rodan's seemingly premature close allowed its former members to continue their careers in such notable collectives as Retsin, Rachel's, June of 44, the Shipping News, and the Sonora Pine, as well as solo efforts by both Mueller and O'Neil, not every story has a happy ending. Jason Noble died of cancer in 2012 at the age of just 40, and original drummer Cook died earlier this year.

On June 11th, some 19 years after Rodan played its last live note, Quarterstick/Touch and Go Records will release Fifteen Quiet Years, a collection of rarities and live recordings. We talked about band music and memories via conference call with O'Neil in Los Angeles and Mueller in New Haven, Connecticut.

See also: From Hesher to Hardcore: Lewis Dimmick on His New Book This Music

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Read up on Savages and you'll rake in a list of adjectives that peg them as the latest band to redefine "punk"--pop-punk (The Guardian), post-punk (Pitchfork; MTV Hive; BBC) and neo-post-punk (Brooklyn Vegan, MOJO) are all monikers that have painted an honest picture of the paradoxically meticulous, frenzied, meditative, sporadic, insightful, explosive and metallic noise propelling from the ripped strings and frayed vocal cords of the London four-piece. For vocalist Jehnny Beth, this game of Pin The Tail On The Genre isn't entirely off the mark (though "neo-post-punk" is the one she finds the most amusing) but it isn't entirely accurate, either.

See also: Savages - Bowery Ballroom - 3/18/13

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Amelia Bushell and Thomas Servidone, the duo behind Brooklyn dream-pop outfit Belle Mare, think it's funny when I ask if they're romantically involved. Walking through the Brooklyn Flea Record Fair on a crowded Saturday afternoon, they insist they're more like siblings. Though you (correctly) wouldn't infer family resemblance by looking at them -- Bushell dresses in all black and speaks with a charmingly muddied accent; Servidone is built like a hockey player, decidedly American.

See also: Dirty Blonde: Fire Sale at the Brooklyn Flea's Superstar DJ Record Fair

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Steven Ellison is on his way to another installment of the Red Bull Music Academy. It's early afternoon, and his quiet, grizzly voice sounds like it just awoke from a nap, but his mind is alert. He explains how he's spent the past week in the city, taking meetings and enjoying the sunshine. He talks about upcoming projects. He mentions his excitement of the future. He really hopes that Joey Bada$$ uses one of his beats for his upcoming record.

In other words, Ellison sounds happy. Content. Pleased.

And why shouldn't he be? The L.A. producer released his most recent Flying Lotus project, Until the Quiet Comes, this past fall to critical acclaim. Shortly after, he revealed himself as the mysterious hip-hop artist Captain Murphy. And then in January, his short film tied to Quiet won the Jury Selection Award at Sundance.

Tonight, New York gets another taste of him, as he takes over Terminal 5 for the second night in a row. Ellison chatted with us about the reception of his record, trying to make a modern day Madvillain, and his upcoming jazz album with Herbie Hancock.

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Nearly four decades ago, frontman Peter Murphy and his bandmates in Bauhaus recorded what Murphy calls the "'Stairway to Heaven' of the post-punk period." But with the release of that tune, "Bela Lugosi's Dead," Bauhaus innovated a form of avant-garde rock that would influence artists ranging from lo-fi whisperers Xiu Xiu to speaker-busting metalheads Sepultura and, part and parcel with their glam-gone-sour look, would become the foundation for pre-Twilight goth culture. In their initial lifespan, the band released four albums and countless EPs before splitting in 1983, when Murphy's bandmates formed the alt-rock group Love & Rockets. They reunited briefly in 1998 and again in the mid-2000s, recording an excellent record titled Go Away White that fuses the sounds of Eno-era Bowie with their trademark experimentalism, before breaking up for good in 2008.

See also: David Bowie and Iggy Pop: The Next Day and Ready To Die

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Rachel Zeffira is breaking out on her own to sing a few seemingly intensely personal songs, but thankfully, the tracks off of The Deserters, her solo debut, are just emotionally cutting enough to be universally touching without revealing too much about the Canadian songbird.

Zeffira, a classically trained singer and composer, put her symphonic tendencies to good work with Cat's Eyes, the alternapop duo she writes and performs with alongside Faris Badwan that's best known for a surreal and serene performance in the Vatican. With The Deserters, her classical chops provide depth and breadth to the first songs she's released on her own in the form of ornate, intricately woven arrangements that showcase the timeless quality of a voice that's been groomed with the best possible training. It's the kind of record a singer looking to make a name for herself dreams of, as it's rife with contradictory flavors and genre clashes--electronic beats and violins on "Break the Spell;" piano trills and lush pop balladry on "Letters from Tokyo (Sayonara)--that prove she can pull her weight under the spotlight at a cabaret or on a club stage alike.

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