Remember that old Saturday Night Live where Chris Farley is playing motivational speaker Matt Foley? At one point during the skit, he lifts his glasses up and down on his face and says, “I can’t see real good…Is that Bill Shakespeare over there?” I did the same thing when Charleston, SC septet The Explorers Club […]

HearYa was lucky enough to recently have indie pop act The Morning Benders join us for a live session, and it was fantastic. The guys stopped through Shirk’s studio on their way back to Berkeley, CA after finishing up a tour opening up for The Kooks. I can definitely think of worse bands to open […]

The day after catching Langhorne Slim at Schubas in Chicago, we were lucky to have him in the studio with his band The War Eagles. And yes, Slim was still rocking the fedora.
After bullshitting about NYC while they set up, the boys settled in without missing a beat from the previous night’s set. We got […]

Sometimes I find myself sitting in Shirk’s studio, feeling like a no-talent assclown, wondering what I did to deserve to be in the presence of such incredible musicians. When Joe Pug came through the studio a couple weeks ago I was wondering the same thing, but I was standing instead of sitting. In fact, I […]

So there I am at a bar called Scoot Inn located off the beaten path in Austin, Texas, US of A. I’m enjoying the sunshine, some free pale ales, and my first day of SxSW. Some loud “experimental” band I can’t seem to remember started playing outside, so I ambled to the bar indoors […]

I didn’t know what to make of The Acorn as they made their way into the studio. Their subject matter is intense and the pic used in our review of Glory Hope Mountain shows their relatively serious side. Five minutes after meeting them, any preconceptions I may have had vanished away.
They were just about the […]

So there I am at the 40 Watt Party at SXSW. I had been having a great day up until this point and I had headed over to the party to meet a friend and catch The Dexateens and Dead Confederate. Well that and drink a whole bunch of their free PBRs. Unfortunately the set […]

There are certain bands that roll though town and are on my required list: Drive-By Truckers, Lucero, and The Hold Steady, to name a few. No matter what’s going on in my life, I make sure it revolves around those shows. I now have a new addition to my short list and his name is […]

When I was about 10 years old we used to sneak into my friend’s brother’s basement and leaf through his albums. They all seemed so cool and it smelled really funny down there. Sabbath, Jethro Tull, Zeppelin, and friends. That was my introduction to rock music. It also was my introduction to a couple of […]

Last year, I got a frenzied IM from Oz telling me about my new favorite band. They were called Port O’Brien. The lead singer worked on the fishing boats. Blah, blah, blah. My rule of thumb is to listen to only about 30% of what he tells me.
So I downloaded it off of eMusic, gave […]