Tag Archives: FEATURES

TVD Live: Gary Clark Jr. at The Great American Music Hall, 2/15

By Jason Miller | Published: February 21, 2012

Gary Clark Jr. was SPIN magazine’s Breakout Artist for the month of November, and Rolling Stone magazine ranked Clark’s Bright Lights EP number 40 on its list of Top 50 Albums of 2011. He’s been called the next big thing out of Austin, TX for some time now, but now with a major label (Warner Bros.) behind his critical acclaim, 2012 is primed to be the year of the blues.

It’s easy to compare a bluesman from Austin to Stevie Ray Vaughan, but once you see Gary Clark Jr. for yourself, there’s really no other way to describe the phenomenon. Just as SRV seemed to channel the spirit of Jimi Hendrix, Gary Clark Jr. does the same with his own unique twist. This guy has the chops and the songwriting to bring the blues back to the forefront of modern music.

I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the sold-out jam-packed Great American Music Hall here in San Francisco last Wednesday to witness Clark Jr. blow the roof off of the venue. It was his 28th birthday, and the crowd greeted him accordingly by serenading him as he walked out on stage. I had seen him before in Dallas many years ago, and you could tell he was something special then; he just put the exclamation point on it last week.

Introducing:
The Pharmacy

By Laurence | Published: February 21, 2012

Washington state’s Scottie Yoder has been creating melodic garage rock for ten years now with friend and trusted collaborator Brendhan Bowers. Classically trained pianist Stefan Rubicz joined the duo in 2007 and The Pharmacy became a threesome.

Since then the trio’s amazing work ethic has produced three albums and a handful of 7″ singles with tours all across North America and Europe with acts such as Japanther, Vivian Girls, and Kimya Dawson.

They spent 2009 living in New Orleans where they recorded the LP Weekend, creating the most consistent record the band has ever made, capturing a magical mid-‘60s vibe that yours truly believed had been lost forever. This was followed by three US and two European tours and a SXSW session with Daytrotter, before returning to Seattle with a wealth of new material.

Posted in TVD UK | Tagged FEATURES | Leave a comment

Brand new from These Furrows, “No Invitation No Welcome”

By Laurence | Published: February 17, 2012

Hard to pigeon-hole outfit, These Furrows will release their new single, “No Invitation No Welcome” backed with “3:16″ via Underdogs Music on 26th March. “No Invitation No Welcome” is also available now as a free download from their website.

Both tracks are taken from their debut album, Treasures which was recorded under the guidance of rock veteran Tony Platt (AC/DC, Motorhead) and mixed by Chris Sheldon (Biffy Clyro, Foo Fighters). It is expected that this long awaited first album will see the light of day in June this year.

For those not familiar with the band, they are fronted by Darryl Reid (guitar and vocals) and backed with Danny Cooper (bass), Jack Brewin (drums) and Calum Price (lead guitar and backing vocals). Their sound really defies easy genre-fication, as their set drifts from rock and post-hardcore to more tuneful melodic ramblings, all built on a quirky indie foundation. Like I said, hard to pin down!

Posted in TVD UK | Also tagged NEWS | Leave a comment

TVD Live: Stolen Silver at Schubas Tavern, 2/13

By Eric Slager | Published: February 16, 2012

Last Monday, 2/13, your TVD-CHI editors once again headed into the city to check out this month’s residency at Schubas Tavern. For those of you who haven’t been following along, Schubas’ residency features new openers supporting a consistent headlining act every Monday night for a month.

This month’s band is Chicago’s incredible Stolen Silver, and week two brought them support from the talented Peter Mulvey.

Supporting their self-titled debut record, Dan Myers and Levi Britton have expanded their art folk duo to a full band that packs a musical punch with a wide variety of instrumentation on any given song.
Read More »

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TVD Live: Chicago Mixtape 1 Year Anniversary Show at the Subterranean, 2/11

By Pat David | Published: February 15, 2012

Last Saturday, 2/11, Chicago Mixtape celebrated their 1 year anniversary of sharing amazing free music from local Chicago bands. On Saturday, Casey Meehan the founder and creator of Chicago Mixtape, brought four of the Chicago’s best together for one night. The lineup included Architecture , The Damn Choir, Elephant Gun, and headliner The Shams Band.

While the rest of the city froze in temperatures lower than 18 degrees, TVD-CHI was at the Subterranean enjoying an open bar and some fantastic music.

Opening the show was the female trio, Architecture. Their nostalgic psychedelic-pop sound and echoing rock was an amazing dynamic to start off the night. Playing through a few new tracks alongside their debut release, When We Were Young, Architecture put on a truly hypnotic set.

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Who the hell is:
The Big Nowhere

By Laurence | Published: February 15, 2012

Can you tell us a bit about the origins of The Big Nowhere?

The Big Nowhere started when Billy and I were working together and we’d make mix CDs to play at work. We were both in different bands at the time (I was in Brown Eye Superfly, and Billy was in Summersalt), and the kind of music we loved most was a world apart from what we were doing in those bands. We each had a bunch of songs written that we’d play for one another, kinda indulging in a little one-upmanship, when one of us would write something the other really liked, it would inspire the other to outdo it.

Over a few tequilas one night in an empty basement pub we sketched out The Big Nowhere on the back of a cigarette packet. We’d do the whole thing ourselves, recording in my living room, trying to capture a sound and more importantly a vibe that was just missing from music at that point. We wanted to recreate the feel of the albums in our record collections that had been handed down to us from our parents and grandparents like stone tablets.

We have an anything-goes attitude to music. The song dictates how it goes, not us. It’ll pull you in the direction or feel it wants to go in, and you just have to follow. Sometimes you end up with something completely different from what you started with, but that’s part of the excitement of writing music. When we play live, we switch up the instruments depending on who we have available to do the show, and that’s one of the things we wanted to do most when we first started the band. Every performance is different, and that’s how we think it should be.

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The Best Music Writer You’ve Never Heard Of

By Jay Mazza | Published: February 14, 2012

When Ellen Willis was hired by the esteemed New Yorker magazine in 1968 to write about the seminal rock scene she became the first woman to cover the new style of music reverberating across the country.

Though extremely well respected by her peers at the time, she fell off the radar of music lovers in the ensuing decades. A new compilation of her work, Out of the Vinyl Deeps—Ellen Willis on Rock Music makes this important writer’s work available to a new generation.

Though I was very familiar with her better-known colleagues at publications like Rolling Stone, Creem and the Village Voice, I had never heard of Willis until I read about the new book in the New York Times Book Review. I devoured this collection of columns from the New Yorker, liner notes and longer pieces that appeared elsewhere during the heady period when rock went mainstream. She wrote about music from 1968 until 1974. plus a few special pieces that appeared in the 1980s and 1990s, but spent the rest of her career as a feminist theorist, author and teacher. Willis died in 2006 and her daughter edited the collection.

Posted in TVD New Orleans | Tagged FEATURES | 1 Comment

Introducing:
Daisy McCrackin

By Laurence | Published: February 9, 2012

Born and raised in San Francisco, Daisy McCrackin moved to Los Angeles to further her career as an actress. Whilst appearing in films such as 3000 Miles to Graceland alongside Kevin Costner, and co-starring in Halloween alongside Jamie Lee Curtis, Daisy found herself stretching her artistic horizons with music, playing guitar and writing songs between acting.

It was during her two years living in the Topanga Canyon artist colony The Rodeo Grounds where she started to redefined her artistic identity. At the behest of a close friend she finally jumped full-time into music, playing her first live show in 2006 where she was dubbed ‘an instant rock star’ in an LA Weekly review.

In 2009, following the release of her live acoustic soundtrack album Til Death Do Us Part, Daisy paired up with renowned musician/producer Alain Johannes (Eleven, Them Crooked Vultures) to record a collection of six original songs entitled “The Rodeo Grounds”. The EP was an homage to the Topanga community that she had become such a part of.

Posted in TVD UK | Also tagged NEWS | 1 Comment

5 Questions with
Daria Dzurik

By Jay Mazza | Published: February 7, 2012

I first heard Daria Dzurik at a performance at the Louisiana Music Factory. I was impressed by her stage presence and her ability to integrate a steel drum into her act. After a short conversation, she agreed to participate in an e-question and answer session.

1. You play a steel drum or pan as part of your act. How did you get involved in playing this rather unusual instrument?

I started playing pan when I was in high school. I went to Leon High in Tallahassee, FL. They have a GREAT steel band, (and now the middle school that I once attended has a steel band class as well!) I’m finding it’s definitely more common in the school systems in Florida than it is in Louisiana. (The first time I busted out my drums here someone asked me if it was a gumbo pot…)

Several universities in Florida (and across the country) have steel bands too, which was great because once I graduated from high school I was able to continue learning on the instrument while I was in college at Florida State University.

Posted in TVD New Orleans | Tagged FEATURES | Leave a comment

Queens of Vinyl:
Julie London

By Pat David | Published: February 2, 2012

Queens of Vinyl is a series where we explore the sounds, styles, and impact of some of the most incredible and influential female artists ever pressed to vinyl.

This week: Julie London

She is seductive and sultry. She’s smoky and mysterious. She’s gorgeous and talented. These are only a few of the phrases that describe the amazing Julie London. An accomplished actress and legendary torch singer, London toured all over the world during her 35-year career, and solidified her place in our Queens of Vinyl series.

Born straight into the show biz lifestyle, London was the daughter of two vaudevillian actors and was introduced into the acting and singing world at the early age of 14. Coming out of the Hollywood Professional School in 1945 with an already slowly blossoming acting career, Julie London began to take the world by storm. While attempting to get work and part-timing as an elevator operator, she was “discovered” and immediately put on the starlight path.