Tag Archives: The Phoenix

YOU’VE MENTIONED ON YOUR SHOW THAT YOU HAD SOME CONFLICT WITH THE BOSTON PERSONALITY. I don’t know if it was conflict. I grew up in New Mexico, and my family is from the East Coast. For the first couple of years there, the inconsistency of the Boston accent can be a little intimidating. But over […]

The first lesson from Friday’s New Pornographers’ show at the House of Blues was this: do not mess with Neko Case. For some reason, an audience member hurled a CD — no case, just the shiny, sharp-edged disc — at the stage early in the band’s set. This prompted New Pornographer Case to say, half-jokingly, […]

It takes balls to open a debut album with the words “we’re breaking out,” but that’s what the band Free Energy recently did on their homonymous debut from DFA Records. It’s also how the Philadelphia quintet began last night’s show at the Middle East downstairs, plowing through the fuzz-rock song in question (“Free Energy,” of […]

On her new Kill Rock Stars release, Know Better Learn Faster, Thao Nguyen starts the song “Easy” with this line, spoken matter-of-factly: “Sad people dance too.” That sentiment is also fitting for Nguyen’s work in general. [Click here for more]

Sam Beam, the singer-songwriter behind the name Iron & Wine, made a name for himself with the four-track masterpiece The Creek Drank the Cradle in 2002. But rather than staying lo-fi, he’s moved on to bigger productions. On his third Iron & Wine full-length, he goes for his biggest sound yet, but the production is […]

Adam Stephens and Tyson Vogel have long been trying for a sound that’s both earthy and artsy, Bright Eyes folk rock delivered with an aw-shucks squint. So far — on two full-lengths and a pair of EPs — the results have been underwhelming. [Click here for more]